tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5213291.post6756285167665180044..comments2023-06-28T09:59:42.375-05:00Comments on The Clue Batting Cage: Economicsphilmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10385793223534322848noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5213291.post-23436356157351640962011-08-27T18:55:00.909-05:002011-08-27T18:55:00.909-05:00I think of economics like I think of a budget. The...I think of economics like I think of a budget. They are both the discipline of studying what HAS happened. You can make a budget out and say you are going to spend X amount on maintenance next year then your roof blows off in a storm. Guess what, your gonna spend more on maintenance this year than you planned. <br /><br />Economics is to a large degree is the same. All we can say for sure is what we did last year (if you kept good records.)<br /><br />(The Lowes on the east coast didn't plan to sell ten times more generators this year than last but I bet they did.)<br /><br />There are general principle that influence the economy of course and they should be observed with great care. <br /><br />When you try to micromanage or control you only tend to demonstrate your folly. The Chevy volt is an example of this. <br /><br />If you haven't read The Forgotten Man it is a great study on this. Amity Schlaes reveals this working in the FDR adim.<br /><br />It's like you said, economics is driven by human nature and who can predict that?Whitehawkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13655992902329694045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5213291.post-63519987151954333082011-08-27T01:46:20.146-05:002011-08-27T01:46:20.146-05:00Thanks as always for the linky-love, Phil!
I don&...Thanks as always for the linky-love, Phil!<br /><br />I don't know if I was making much sense with that "Platonic forms" business, but that's the best description I can come up with. Of course, I live my life in close proximity to higher-ed types, so I suppose all my analogies will have a tendency towards dorkiness...<br /><br />Anyway.... Sometimes when I try to understand the liberal mindset, I feel sorry for them. I remember thinking that way, too. I was in high school, and I read something, and all of a sudden it hit me: it's all, like, <i>relative,</i> man! Most of this stuff is actually, dude, a <i>social construction!</i> It's dynamite stuff when you're seventeen and don't know your ass from a hole in the ground. <br /><br />It actually takes a lot of maturity before you realize how little you know. It takes a lot <i>more</i> maturity to be able to admit it. I have some ideas on how the economy should go, sure, but given that whenever my internet goes down I basically blame evil spirits and bad juju, I'm willing to admit that my macroeconomic theories are worth exactly what you pay for them... <br /><br />But then again, I'm not invested in the idea that I'm always and everywhere the smartest guy in the room. It's a sign of a weak, or at least unfurnished, mind to always go to the big abstract category when thinking about a particular problem. It's a way of guaranteeing that if you can't be right, at least they'll never be able to conclusively prove you wrong. There are so many things in life of sufficient complexity that mastering them means pretty much ignoring everything else... which is why, say, mechanics are great with cars and generally not so hot on other stuff. Only the liberal and the adolescent (same diff, really) think that one person can be an expert without portfolio, as good on tax policy as he is on immigration law, climate science, philosophy, history, law, etc.....<br /><br />But since macroeconomic theories are big fat abstractions, insecure people feel they can opine on them without really knowing much.Severianhttp://academiczoology.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com