Is your special interest Economics/Finance?

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I have always enjoyed these topics and want to know if other Autists share this special interest whether professionally or as an amateur?

I have a number of topics to discuss, but for now I just want to see if any WP users are so inclined.

I wish that were my special interest.

Slave - It was a special interest of mine, many years back. I did an nighttime MBA program, focusing on International Finance (particularly, Foreign Exchange). It was the only technical focus in the program - LOL.

In the last several years, I have lot interest (somewhat). I suppose, if/when the financial system collapsed, it would become an interest once again.

What is your take on the likelihood of financial system collapse?

I have held a significant interest in Economics for quite some time. Although I have a degree in Political Science, the bibliography of my master's thesis currently has 8 economic Nobel laureates on it (Arrow, Buchanan, Diamond, Harsanyi, Ostrom, Samuelson, Schelling & Sen), and it had 6 when I completed it in 2007.

Since I work in Health Care Economics, however, it is difficult to separate my interest in economics from the necessities of the job.

TM is probably the most hard-core economist I have encountered on WP, but last time I checked, he hasn't made any posts for quite some time...

I have some interest in economics. I've been trying to write an economic simulation program for some time but kind of lost interest at this point. My interest is in market instability.

It is one of my special interests. I used to work at the Finance Dept of the government of Canada, and I am currently working on two fin-econ projects in another part of the government. The strange thing is, I was very artistic as a child: music, dance, drawing and writing, and became quite technical in my early teens. I continued with the technical, working in IT for some time. I then got a library degree. Anyway, I find it strange that I have been able to pick up on finance and economics so quickly, I just get it. Perhaps it's because they are systems and I can visualize systems in my head very easily and break them into levels, parts, etc.

What are other people's thoughts about having finance and economics as interests?

That’s an interesting question.

So...First of all, I am by no means an expert in this area. Second, my record of “calling” economic events (e.g. recessions) has been very poor (as I tend to not be overly skeptical of the system, particularly with all corruption and greed permeating everything).

In any event, I had expected the financial system to simply collapse post Lehman. I was not certain exactly how this would manifest itself (e.g. a return to soup lines?). But, I did think things would get much, much worse. It did not. And I was quite surprised.

Honestly, I didn't do anything to prepare for things getting worse. As, I do not believe there is a lot anyone can do (other than, supposedly, buy gold and guns). So, I just waited. Happily, it didn’t happen (as it would be a very ugly thing).

In any event, it does seem to me that the system is susceptible to collapse. We are, with increasingly regularity, seeing bubbles form just about everywhere. I am particularly nervous about where interest rates are. Because, one would guess, that there is only one direction for them to go (which is up). Since everything is tied to interest rates, we could see some "interesting" things occur when they do rise. This may not happen next week, next month, next year. But, it will inevitably happen.

What’s also really interesting - Is that the “typical person” cannot fathom a collapse of this nature. I think the “typical person” lives in a bubble, fully unaware when these manias are occurring. We saw this several times recently (e.g., Dot-Com, Real Estate, etc.). We have also seen these in the past (e.g. Tulips, etc.).

It seems as if these manias are no different than the typical "trends" we see in the everyday neurotypical world. One day ‘X’ is in style, the next day ‘Y’. I never understand how this works – LOL.

I recently read, "The Return of the Great Depression". I thought it was interesting. I am looking for other interesting books to read on this topic (if you have any suggestions).

I'm interested in a kind of economics, and it's inherently political: the Austrian School. I have read massive amounts of the Austrian literature, and still find it fascinating. I like the Austrian School's praxeological approach to economics, and I thoroughly enjoying civilised debates involving the Austrian School versus other economic philosophies and approaches, and their implications.

French economy ?

www.wrongplanet.net/postt231466.html‎

As I have political interests, I suppose economics goes hand-in-hand with that.

Every since I got shafted over my rights on student loans, the imperative to find good-paying work made me very interested in economics. The worse the economy, the worse my odds are.

Ugh. I even made it my major in University and that was a HUGE mistake. I don't want to write an essay length post but let's just say that it was a VERY disillusioning experience once I graduated into the 'real' world. It took me years to realize why many intelligent people and most scientists have very little respect for economists and most of the economists I knew and respected turned out to be dumb as bricks about how the real world works outside of charts and diagrams. Oh well.

Yes! I'm an economics student myself...