The dirty little secret of economics has been exposed

[AlexGheg]

Economics Professors are scared that their students will ask a very simple question. What are quality and convenience? It may sound simple but these two things dominate our lives, but economists don't know anything more about it than you do. Why are they scared? Asking these questions shows the fundamental problems with indifference curve theory, which is the foundation of modern economics. This information has been covered up for more than a decade, but I'm asking you to show this to every economics student that you know.

 

 

--- moderator: link removed. If you choose to participate as a proper member we'll reinstate it ---

Edited March 6, 2012 by Klaynos
link removed advert methinks

[swansont]

Without viewing the video, I will ask: aren't quality and convenience defined, in part, by the consumer, and differ by the product or service? I don't think there's an absolute definition.

[John Cuthber]

I though the point was moot anyway.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/29/ha-joon-chang-23-things

[uncool]

Economics Professors are scared that their students will ask a very simple question. What are quality and convenience? It may sound simple but these two things dominate our lives, but economists don't know anything more about it than you do. Why are they scared? Asking these questions shows the fundamental problems with indifference curve theory, which is the foundation of modern economics. This information has been covered up for more than a decade, but I'm asking you to show this to every economics student that you know.

 

---

The consumer theory that you are referring to is specifically designed to be easy to mathematically model, not to be an exact theory of how humans act. So far, I have watched your video through the first example; your first example doesn't make sense in how it is phrased (that is, "infinite quantity" doesn't make sense), but it brings up a known problem with the theory - the idea of discreteness. For ease of mathematical modeling, the consumer theory specifically assumes that goods are not discrete.

 

In short, no, economists aren't scared; what you refer to are known limitations of the model. A huge portion of modern economics is the attempt to remove those assumptions to more closely model human behavior.

=Uncool-

Edited March 6, 2012 by Klaynos

[AlexGheg]

In short, no, economists aren't scared

 

I was a former insider at the top levels. I've been in the same small room with multiple Nobel Prize winners. You have no idea what you're talking about.

[uncool]

I was a former insider at the top levels. I've been in the same small room with multiple Nobel Prize winners. You have no idea what you're talking about.

I hope you realize that this is a claim that about half of all crackpots make. Given my experiences in microeconomics classes, and as the exact person you claim to be targeting, it is incumbent on you to demonstrate that the books act as you say - that they do not say that these are assumptions that are reasonable to a certain extent but do not apply universally, used in order to make them easy to model mathematically.

=Uncool-

[John Cuthber]

In November 2008 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth (II) visited the London School of Economics. After a presentation about the financial crisis by one of the professors she asked "How come nobody could foresee it?".

In July 2009 they wrote to her with an answer. There had been " A failure of the collective imagination... to understand the risks to the system as a whole".

 

In short- they didn't understand the economy.

 

It's all very well saying you have been in a room full of Nobel Prize winning economists, but do remember that they are not real Nobel prizes. It's a prize given by a Swiss bank, not the Nobel Foundation.

 

You might also want to look at how well some of those prize winners did afterwards. They played major roles in LTCM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LTCM.png

and platinum grove asset management

http://www.davemanuel.com/2008/11/07/platinum-grove-asset-management-lp-another-myron-scholes-hedge-fund-is-struggling-as-well/

 

The real dirty secret of economics is that economists are not very good at it.

Edited February 25, 2012 by John Cuthber

[michel123456]

It's a prize given by a Swiss bank, not the Nobel Foundation.

 

Swedish bank, not Swiss (The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel)

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/

http://www.riksbank.se/en/

[John Cuthber]

Oops!

Sorry about that, though I think the point still stands.

[uncool]

I was a former insider at the top levels. I've been in the same small room with multiple Nobel Prize winners. You have no idea what you're talking about.

To further my earlier post: Where are your publications? If you were an insider in the academic field of economics, as this post states (both with respect to "Nobel Prize winners" and with respect to the OP), you should be able to list your publications.

=Uncool-

Edited February 25, 2012 by uncool