Grumbles on International Economics

[mirthness]

So I am taking international economics at the moment.  The class is due to finish up this Saturday.  It has gone fairly well thus far, though I am loath to admit that I detest math of any kind.  Thus I have had some issues with the class. However, I am enjoying some validation from this class as it has revealed that some of my thoughts on economics

Comments

[tightpants4eva]

"How can an entire field of study base all of its theory on the assumption that the exact opposite of reality is correct?"

I don't know, but that never stopped theologians, either.

[mirthness]

Indeed!

Perhaps Economics is just another religion...

[tonysalieri]

Wow

[mirthness]

I am a little harsh. I have read some very fun and wacky ecnomic texts such as Freakonomics and Naked Economics. There are some amazingly interesting theories in the worl ecnomics.

It's just that this field of study is so important, especially as most economies are now rather interdependent due to globalism, and yet the theorists seem unwilling to consider these realities of the world. The envirnoment of international ecnomics is not perfect, clean, and rational. I would think that ecnomists would want to explore that area as well. Perhaps I shall have ot continue to read the more out there ecnomic theory on my own. I suppose that I shouldn't expect the fun stuff in an MBA class.

[tonysalieri]

Well, I think a lot of these economists are mathematicians, and the "chaos" of reality is very difficult to factor into the models. Still, with just a little extra work, it's pretty simple to create a "better, more realistic" model. It smacks of intellectual laziness, and hidebound attachment to limited thinking, to me.

I hear that the realm of quantum physics is stuck in a similiar rut..to wit, everyone is so devoted to proving the existance of string theory that it's crowding out any other fields of competing theory.

Freakonomics is a great book, or so I've heard. I haven't had a chance to read it..is that the one that postulated that the drop in crime in this country matched up with the legalization of abortion, and that the former was an unintended consequence of the latter?

[mirthness]

Indeed, that is the Freakonomics book. It also looks at cheating patterns for teachers and sumo wrestlers. My favorite topic, however, was the discussion on names and how a name affects economic prospects. I highly recommend it.