Economist R. Preston McAfee was interviewed by the Guardian last month. In the interview, he discusses price volatility and how Amazon might be experiementing with price discrimination. After the interview, McAfee provided further observations about Amazon’s pricing.
August 1, 2006
July 25, 2006
Education Debts
In response to Myshele Goldberg’s article The Real Tragedy of Student Debt, I cannot help but shake my head. The author complains of an education debt totalling a whopping $70,000. She points out, reasonably, that this is no way to start a working life. No shit, Myshele. I quote:
Yet I made my choices based on the values I had been taught — that helping others is more important than making money for yourself, meaningful career is more important than net worth, and brains, determination, and charisma are the key ingredients of success. I realize now that I subscribed to the fantasy of an equal society, when in fact everyone’s options arise from class, race, gender, and a thousand other subtle differences in our experiences, assumptions, and privileges.
Unfortunately, she failed to take a very basic fact into account: you can only pay back what you earn. Taking out tens of thousands in education loans in order to secure an MA and a low-paying job is bad business no matter how you slice it. The fact of the matter is the vast majority of ‘meaningful’ jobs pay such low wages that they are only open to the independently wealthy. This may be inconvenient, but it is the truth.
April 25, 2006
Jane Jacobs
Jane Jacobs died today and I’m sorry to see her go. I probably can say anything about here book “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” that hasn’t already been said, but I will try. For me, the book is about two things; how the ‘experts’ can get everything wrong and how a astute observer can still contribute new and fundamental insights to a field of human knowledge regardless of their expertise. Jacobs wrote about whatever she pleased and was the ultimate gadfly – an amateur and a woman challenging experts in male dominated fields. She will always be one of my heroes.
April 5, 2006
Bad Joke
Did you hear about the Jihadist school of economics?
Their prime concern is defending IS-LM.
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March 9, 2006
Fact-Checking Government Statistics
John Williams’ Shadow Government Statistics is a monthly newsletter which provides alternative analysis of government statisitcs. The newsletter itself costs a steep $175.00/year, so I won’t be subscribing. However, he provides some interesting notes on the structure and flaws in reporting of unemployment, federal deficit, consumer price index, and gross domestic product. Granted, if you have a background in economics (even at an undergraduate level) you’ve already heard about many of the flaws discussed in your macro or even principles class. If you don’t have a background in economics, I recommend reading them even if this kind of stuff makes your eyes glaze over – people really do make decisions based on these figures (your employer for example) and it’s important for you to be aware of them. Here’s an interview with the author of the newletter and articles.(found via Metafilter)
March 4, 2006
Introductory Economics
R. Preston McAfee, who teaches at Caltech has already had a pretty extensive and busy career, so I don’t know how exactly he found the time to author a textbook as well. His book, Introductory Economics is quite good and is an excellent reference even for those who already have a basic background in economics. In addition to the “principles” these textbook also contains intermediate microeconomics material. He’s made it available for free as a PDF download and will sell you a printed version for only $11.60. That’s way more reasonable than any of the other commercially available textbooks I’ve seen. McAfee’s book is also broader in coverage and includes many topics related to business strategy (another one of his interests.)