What would you like to know about Economics? | Bloggers Lair | Yakezie Forums

md said:

Thanks for being so active on Studenomics lately!

I took some basic and advanced economics courses in college. It's one of those topics that is complicating at first, until you sit down and have someone explain to you. Then you start to love it because you it's not about memorizing. It's about understanding how things work.

Any post on the law of diminishing returns would be cool. Maybe you could relate it to saving money?

"love it because you it's not about memorizing. It's about understanding how things work."

That is exactly why I love economics.  It's a course in logic, though the macro-side tends to make people think it's all just a bunch of clowns giving forecasts.  

Half-Assed Economist said:

I swear I break my neck trying to get kids to figure out that it is about the logic not the formulas. Do we do alot of math? Yes, but it is to prove that the logic we are spouting can actually hold as true given the assumptions we are working with.

The problem is that the assumptions are sometime so off base, that it makes the models somewhat useless in the real world.

I think one of the problems with this is the fact that there are so many mathematicians and statisticians teaching economics, and they aren't that good at conveying the foundational theories. Economics has a bad reputation for not being applicable to the "real world" because of this. I had some professors that were great researchers – using topology and other high-level math, but they were horrible at trying to get a student to understand basic concepts.