Economy

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Hi. What do you do in an economy class, what do you learn?

Wikipedia is your friend.

Random descriptions of Economics classes are also rather friendly.

Thank you. From the random description it sounds very interesting.

" the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services."

I've had many a discussion with my dad (the retired econ professor) over whether that description - and the entire field of study and analysis - is itself an artifact of Capitalism.

Very little in the way of truth or facts. If you take the bodies of every economist who ever lived in the past, are currently alive or who will be alive in the future and laid them out in a straight line head to foot you would not reach a conclusion......

Ethics teaches that virtue is its own reward; economics teaches that reward is its own virtue.

Most economics courses at the college/university level deal with the two major branches in Neo-classical Economics:

- Microeconomics (the study of individual economic actors like consumers, firms, employees and employers)
- Macroeconomics (the study of aggregate features of the economy, like balance of payments/inflation/fiscal policy)

Then there are more specific fields like:

- Growth theory - The study of the long-term development, growth (and sometimes decline) of economies
- Environmental Economics - The study of the interaction between economic activity and the physical environment
- Game theory - The study of strategic decision making
- Welfare Economics - The study of economic well-being
- Econometrics - The mathematical/statistical study of economic activity

Most economic studies operate under the umbrella of "rational choice", a set of assumptions about rational self-interested behaviour (or more specifically: The Von Neumann-Morgenstern Utility Theorem). There are some exceptions, however, the most famous possibly being Daniel Kahneman (he is a psychologist, BTW, but he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002 for his studies on irrational behavior).

Is that a quote? It seems very much something I need to work into my basic philosophical understanding. I would like to know to whom it is attributed.

i studied economics at university level in the UK.

We covered:

* Large scale - Balance of trade, labour markets, politics etc
* Small Scale - supply curves, demands curves, various models and formula
* Price modelling - price setting, market dynamics, a bit of game theory.

I enjoyed it as a topic

When I studied economics in college, both Marco and micro, the focus was mainly in Keyensian economics although they did touch on other models. Macro mainly dealt with the larger market forces including GDP and GNP and determining both based on set constants. Micro dealt with market and elasticity of certain goods and products.
The intro classes dealt with the gestalt while the more advanced delve into the mathematical models. It has been twenty years since I took economics so things might have changed.
BTW: Capitalism refers to the definition by Marx and the now defunct economic model, a more accurate term would be market forces.

Can someone change the title of this thread from "Economy" to "Economics"?

I have studied the topic extensively.

In my view, study Econ. with the following perspective:

1. Econ. cannot be understood without understanding the political context.
2. Econ. cannot be understood without understanding that all Economic variables reflect both personal and Social Psychology.
3. Of the many Schools of Thought within Econ. a very small number dominate and their adherents have immense Financial and Political power and are intent on maintain those SofT as the status quo.
4. Econ. is and always has been about POWER. "He who hold the purse strings make the rules" Studying Econ. is studying the machinations of Power.
5. Econ. as an academic discipline is VERY political(both gov't and banking) and non-academic financial interests have immense influence on what Universities teach.

Careers in Finance/Econ. are excellent, especially for Aspies.

I LOVE Econ. though it is known as the "Dismal Science"
Enjoy!

Ugh. I took economics in University and can only offer two words:

Stay away.

There is a reason why most scientists and technical types don't take economists seriously. I soon learned after graduating that much of what I was taught had little to do with reality and caused more harm than good. Most of the "expert" theories are suck in the 17th century and have little bearing to modern systems. Did I mention it was boring to boot?

Except that political and banking systems that operate on said economic models will effect your daily life more than the discovery of dark matter ever will.
For instance:
The Federal Reserve Bank can and will decrease or increase the money supply, making money more abundant (inflation) or less abundant (deflation) based on a set of desired economic factors. This will effect your life, regardless of how economically cyclical your job is, can increase the cost of getting mortgage or a car loan.
All political systems are based on an economic model not the other way around.
Not understanding or not knowing how the economic models that drive policies that effect your life is how politicians get away with doing crazy stuff.

Well said.

The fact is that the activity that occurs in the realms of Finance, Banking, and Trade affect every human on a daily basis and are key determinants of SES, social mobility, societal stability, crime, quality of life, etc....

Despite this, the vast majority of humans do not know or care to understand anything about these topics.

They prefer total ignorance and this has resulted in extreme am'ts of "crazy stuff" going on without so much as a peep from the public.

The GlobEcon is going to crash again like it did in the GFC of 2008, and "nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care".

It is soooooooo obvious but the public don't know/don't care.

The impact on their lives will be extreme, yet willful blindness holds sway.

Meh. C'est la vie.

After graduation I was prospected by a bank to do some bankwise-further education bc of maths, I didn't do that, missed a *career* here, but I was more interested in biology, humanities so choose agricultural engeering, that didn't happen neither bc I didn't want to vote for 1th European parlement in their bad-conceived agricultural planned economy and corporate poluted future. Hell no!! Bad plan (authoritychallenging) when you're in the doorstep, so I got easily kicked out, I think I learned faster than when studying, that no f***ing help will help, but worsen the wrongs, in the name of your own *career**promotion*etc
still I have trouble with being trodded on, constantly, and accepting that!!
In the meantime, while finding peace in domestic utility, some #gournementfundedarseholes# saw that tree away.
[quote some Nietsche of your choice here]
Why?? ...........economics!