May 2010
2 posts
Where neuroscience meets microeconomic theory...
In microeconomic theory, price is an exogenous variable, an unexplained variable. I read an essay recently in which the author claimed that neuroscience seems to have derived where the price arises: behavioral tension motivates both the buyer and the seller. The implications of this essay lead to a focus on ethics within the firm, something I have rarely, if ever, heard in the classroom...
WOW! Just WOW....
I am posting a quote from, I hate to admit, the Texas Governor Rick Perry in response to the the BP disaster and in support of his favorite ideology: “We don’t know what the event that has allowed for this massive oil to be released…[could have been] just an act of God that [caused this]..and politically driven decisions could put the U.S. in further economic peril. From time to time...
March 2010
11 posts
If society wants represenation based on...
Which way would many former felons vote? GOP will probably lose some degree of power. Ending the Eternal Sentence | The American Prospect Congress is currently considering the Democracy Restoration Act, which would restore federal voting rights to formerly incarcerated people upon release.
I'm not sure I'll get a response...
I am enrolled in a financial management course this semester. Our instructor works for a pension fund as a derivatives specialist, trading fixed income securities, for a large for bank in Japan (not really Japan, but I am trying as much as possible to hide this instructor’s identity and employer). I asked her to comment on how the principal agent problem arises in the derivatives...
Will health care reform pass?
Consider the implications...
An interview over at NPR MONEY with Dr. Miron reminded me about how economic reasoning provides a unique perspective of the way in which individuals living in society act, and predictions of how government actions will affect those individuals lives, despite the tendency of those claiming the title, “economist,” to commit reductionist and ecological fallacies. The basic question posed...
A rich man's cat may drink the milk a poor child...
Tigger, of course a reference to the poor child.
Earlier I commented on the Texas Education Board’s most recent short-sighted decision. I’ve written broadly about education while an undergraduate. Policies affecting education, in general, fascinate me, but those involving high school especially catch my attention, partly because my experience does not typify that of most students (I...
Texas public school students have met the enemy:...
The cover story on today’s issue of the Dallas Morning News reported the Texas Education Board’s recent activity. No surprise, Republicans rejected a Democratic-backed proposal requiring Texas students to understand the reasons behind the prohibition of a state religion in the Bill of Rights. Apparently, 10 Republicans snuffed out the proposal, supported by all five Democrats. (Why the...
Share my sentiment and smile or not.
Mankiw, the author of the most popular intermediate macroeconomics textbook over the last several years, published an essay in 96 with the National Bureau of Economic Research. In that essay, he talked about the macroeconomist as a scientist and an engineer, tracing the history of macroeconomic thought with an evaluation of what practicing macroeconomists have learned over the past several...
That's puzzling.
Russ o’er @ EconTalk interviewed Katherine Newman, a professor of sociology at Princeton University. The conversation centered on her research involving case studies of fast food workers in Harlem. She talked about some of the circumstances shaping those workers’ decisions to enter into a particular career. Newman authored two books: Chutes and Ladders, and No Shame in My Game. In...
For how long?
Earlier I commented on the job situation for college graduates. The outlook is just terrible on a general level. Consider the following from the January report: 14.8 million unemployed; 3.8 million really do want to work but are not even considered unemployed because they have not looked in the past four weeks; and 8.3 million hold down a part-time job, but if offer a full time job would most ...
How high will it go, and for how long?
I did not anticipate such a tight labor market would exist after I graduated when deciding on a career path during my first few semesters at college. I surveyed the job market and sought a degree seemingly valued by society at that time. I did not want to continue slaving away using the sheer strength of a youth at a job requiring back breaking labor, so deciding on an office-based job seemed...
How high will it go, and for how long?
I did not anticipate such a tight labor market would exist after I graduated when deciding on a career path during my first few semesters at college. I surveyed the job market and sought a degree seemingly valued by society at that time. I did not want to continue slaving away using the sheer strength of a youth at a job requiring back breaking labor, so deciding on an office-based job seemed...