Do You Remember Anything From Your Economics Classes

[B. Kidd]

Sure do. I remember thinking " why isn't this asshole a zillionaire instead of ' teaching' a bunch of morons ?"
Understand ?

As much as I dislike Douger; the above IS NOT a nutty premise.

 

[Baruch Menachem]

Keynes made himself a millionaire several times over from his investments.


So did David Ricardo. Back when that was more impressive

 

[Cuyo]

Sure do. I remember thinking " why isn't this asshole a zillionaire instead of ' teaching' a bunch of morons ?"
Understand ?

As much as I dislike Douger; the above IS NOT a nutty premise.

Being a college professor ain't exactly flippin' burgers you know.

 

[elvis]

Sure do. I remember thinking " why isn't this asshole a zillionaire instead of ' teaching' a bunch of morons ?"
Understand ?

As much as I dislike Douger; the above IS NOT a nutty premise.

Being a college professor ain't exactly flippin' burgers you know.

but a lot of them could make more money in the private sector. a lot more.

 

[Cuyo]

As much as I dislike Douger; the above IS NOT a nutty premise.

Being a college professor ain't exactly flippin' burgers you know.

but a lot of them could make more money in the private sector. a lot more.

Well they are 'private sector' for the most part, but I get the picture.

Douger and Kidd (i think) are insinuating that they're not that smart, or else they would work elsewhere in private industry or investment. Some people are more suited to the security of a teaching gig. Plus it's hard to compete with the hours and bennies.

And, God forbid, somebody could actually enjoy teaching...

 

[william the wie]

That very little of macro-economics as now constructed is worth anything. And the problem areas are both known and understood:

The horizon of predictability (the length of time the models are good for) seems to have a limit of 90 days and after that butterfly effects screw everything up. That is much too short of a time frame to make sensible monetary, fiscal or tax policy. By using different approaches: age related spending is my favorite but there are many other possible inputs; less accurate but more useful policy predictions can be made.

Of the four parts of the basic GDP equation macro-economics concentrates on G and C because government spending and consumption are much easier to jigger than X-M and NI. However the drivers of long term GDP growth are exports-imports, savings, product life cycles and other things macro-economics generally does not address.

Fair enough, but what about models like the Phillip's Curve, Production Possibilities Frontier, and Aggregate Supply and Demand? Aren't those still relevant?

Production Possibilities Frontier certainly. But as you will learn in intermediate macro, Banking and Money et al Economics is about making money rather than informing policy while being dressed up as political economics.

Take for example the charge of us having a Keynesian economy. That is all public relations, the US economy is based on the models of Fisher, who it so happens gave the famous "Permanent Plateau of Prosperity" speech just before the 1929 crash. The Keynes model is no better and arguably worse being the main driver in 10+% unemployment in the UK 1921-39 and the inflationary collapse of the Weimar Republic. However those problems are less well known on this side of the Atlantic so Keynes has a better image here so that is why our Fisherite automatic stabilizers are called Keynesian.

 

[william the wie]

I'm asking this because I'm just now taking Economics in school, and it intriques me. There are things to economics that just don't get played in the mass media, like inflationary gaps versus recessionary gaps, or the difference between monetary policy and fiscal policy. Like I said, I've just starting to learn, so I don't now a lot about it.

I just wanted to ask the people here if they took economics in school, and if they did, what do they remember?

I majored in finance and economics. I remember a fair amount. It's helps me a great deal in understanding basic economic concepts working in the capital markets.

However, economics is a limiting discipline in understanding human behavior. You would be well suited to study psychology and sociology as well. Good avenues of study within economics are emerging branches such as behavioral economics and neuroeconomics. You should also take a class or two in economic history.

I bolded that for a reason. Economics as a means of learning how to make money fast is fine but as a way of setting government policy the current paradigm fails. The biggest failure is that value investing and diseconomies of scale in portfolio size are seen as anomolies. Using a discipline intended to create better speculators as a means of setting government policy is nuts.

 

[sparky]

Basic economics folks?

all you gotta know is the rich get richer, the poor get poorer

anything further is just blame game rhetoric

~S~

 

[Brutus]

Ever heard of Hoover dam?????
Smoot Hawley???????
Huge tax increases????

Hoover was a huge liberal like all liberals got everything backwards.

 

[Listening]

I recall National Income Accounting and how it seems that, at its most basic form, it is rarely included in discussions about current issues. I could be wrong on this...so let me know.

GDP, a component of National Income Accounting, is often used to compare contries to one another. GDP is somehow related to the quality of life (don't ask me how that works).

 

[Listening]

In further thinking about this question, I have to admit that I did recently pull out an old economics book and read up on National Income Accounting. I then listened for references to it as I watched the pundits and visited different websites.

It almost never came up.

Is it even worth knowing about (and I am asking this about macroeconomics in general) if no one uses it in their daily discussions....in a meaningful and common way.

I hear people say we spend 16% of GDP on health care. I have to ask "So what ?" Is there something really wrong with that when our GDP is so high compared to most nations ? And is it really an apples to apples comparison ?