I love economics. Why was the stuff in school about supply / demand,
guns vs butter so boring and not applicable to the real world?
Here is a great book that I am almost done reading, Naked Economics by Chares Wheelan.
It has helped (maybe not moderate) but at least put some context around some frustrations with our government and politics.
A good example from Karen's recent blog, I love fettucini Alfredo. But I only order it if the servings are small (Fazzoli's etc). If the portions are too big (Macaroni Grill) then I get spaghetti and meatballs because it reheats better for the 2 extra meals I get out of it.
An absolute must read, he also does a monthly blog on Yahoo Finance. His most recent being why the post office should no longer be owned by the government.
5 comments:
Several neat facts from the book:
While our government can be cumbersome and inefficient, the fact that we have things like the FDIC, USDA, FDA, SEC, etc. allow us to give money to a bank teller we have never met and trust that it will end up in our account (you can also ask out the tellers if you so choose).
Many countries are corrupt because the only way to ensure a deal is by having it occur through family members (or paying those family members on your behalf).
Almost all of the countries that exist within the tropics are poor. The hot weather and massive rain are bad from growing crops to trade.
Having a huge natural resource (like an oil field) is usually bad for a country as they focus too many resources on that one resource. Think of it as keeping all of your stock in one company. Countries like Japan w/ few natural resources had to create a more diversified economy based on trade.
We take property rights for granted. The poor of the world are living on $9 trillion worth of property (almost 100 times all the foreign aid given in the past 30 years). But they can't use it to secure a loan to start a business because it is all "communal land" where no one even owns their house.
I like the points you bring up - all good and nothing like what htey teach in school about econ.
You should post the link to this guy's yahoo blog!
Wow that is interesting... I often struggle as to when asked to donate to worthy causes. So I really like to learn about how to REALLY save the world and make the most difference possible for my money. I will definitely want to read this book.
(donating time and resources is sometimes better than donating money. that way, 100% of your efforts are utilized the way YOU want them. after all, it's a charity effort of your desires).
what, taught in school, is actually used in real experiences? I would not say I use my degrees daily. Oh, it's nice to whip out my "credentials" when needed, but I rarely use what was actually taught in class.
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