Day: June 13, 2019

A Promise, An Update, and A Request

AshishLeave a comment

Exactly one year ago, this blog came out of hibernation.

I had started EFE in June 2016, with an aim of popularizing economics. The blog, back then, was about writing simple, easy to understand articles about economics. The idea was to write stuff so that folks would have an easier experience navigating this often complex subject.

As with most things I have tried to start in life, it started well enough, but petered out fairly quickly. I wrote on the blog off and on, but without either a plan or a commitment. The biggest problem was that I was trying to substitute for some really good stuff already out there. Going up against the best – substituting for them –  is difficult. And so the blog lay (mostly) dormant.

The Promise

But on the 13th of June, 2018, I put up five links that I thought were worth reading. And, I am proud to say, from that day on until today, I have been putting up a post a day (at least). Rather than trying to go up against the best in the business, I have simply tried to link to them – complement them.

It’s ironic. One of the most popular posts on this blog is an article about substitutes and complements.

But for the past year, all I’ve done is read, and share some of what I read. There hasn’t been too much method or thought applied to the sharing – if I liked reading it, I shared it. The one thing that I did change was that February of 2019 onwards, I started adding some context to each link, and tagging each post with the topics discussed therein.

The Update

Beginning this week, though, in celebration of it being one year of getting off my posterior and showing up everyday, there is a change to this blog. Long overdue, but some housekeeping, and a semblance of order.

From here on in, Monday will be links about India. Tuesday will be links about technology. Wednesday will be articles from other parts of the world, while Thursday will be about economic theory. Friday will be assorted stuff (keep an eye out for an article about poop tomorrow, for example). Saturday will be tweets I found interesting, while Sunday will be a link to a video I found interesting.

If you want to read a collection of articles related to each topic listed above, simply click on Links, in Categories on the right, and take your pick (Monday through Friday). Alternatively, search for a word and see if I have linked to an article about that topic. Heard of chaebols, for example?

Each article will help you learn a little bit more about the world, and therefore about economics (or is it the other way around?). Keep at it for a while – a week, a month, a year – and you’ll find that you know more than you did before. Learning compounds, and it truly is a miracle.

There will also be a weekly (at least) article on a book I have enjoyed reading, or a podcast episode I would like to recommend to you. These are separate categories in their own right in the Category drop-down menu.

The Request

Please subscribe, if you haven’t already. Subscribing is very easy: simply click on “follow blog via email” at the top right of this page. Alternatively, read this article about what Feedly is, and consider reading more than just this blog. I’d recommend the latter, if you’re asking.

Also, please help spread the word? The blog is free, and will be updated daily, and if you think anybody might benefit by reading five handpicked articles daily, please point them in the direction of this blog by sharing this post.

And lastly, please do not hesitate to send interesting links, videos and tweets my way. My email address is ashish at econforeverybody dot com, and this is my twitter handle.

Thank you

Finally, thank you for reading this far, and (hopefully) for reading the blog in general. It means a lot.

 

 

EC101: Links for 13th June, 2019

AshishLeave a comment
  1. “A September 2018 article from Eater tells us that Miguel Gonzalez delivers directly to 120 New York restaurants. As an avocado supplier, he works with farms in Mexico’s Michoacán state. To maintain consistency and minimize bruising, he monitors truck temperatures and how the boxes are stacked during their 2600 (or so) mile journey.”
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    What happens when you raise the tariff on a commodity? Who do you think will (ultimately) pay? Econ texts give you the answer – this article provides an example.
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  2. “Across the United States, a similar cocktail seems to be keeping inflation at bay: Employers are reluctant to charge more, unsure how consumers will react, and they’ve found an untapped supply of workers. It’s partly great news. More Americans are getting jobs than policymakers once thought possible, and wages and prices aren’t spinning out of control the way history would predict.”
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    Think you know macroeconomics? Short answer: you never really do. The NYT provides an example of a conundrum that is keeping the Federal Reserve up at night: full employment, low inflation. A nice problem to have, right? You’d have thought so…
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  3. “Economists have written about topics that we would now classify under the headings of “microeocnomics” or “macroeconomics” for centuries. But the terms themselves are much more recent, emerging only in the early 1940s. For background, I turn to the entry on “Microeconomics” by Hal R. Varian published in The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, dating back to the first edition in 1987.”
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    On the etymology of micro and macroeconomics.
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  4. “Belloy’s misfortune stemmed from more than bad luck. He was the victim of unscrupulous traders known simply as operators, who might sell fake elevator receipts, or move prices in their favor by spreading false news. Or they might pull off an especially cunning manipulation known as a corner, in which they would buy future wheat while simultaneously buying all physical wheat.Later, when it came time for the operator to take delivery of his future wheat, the other trader had to first go buy some. But there was none. The operator owned it all. Thus trapped, or cornered, the victim had no choice but to pay whatever price the operator demanded. Cornering was the ruin of many a trader, like our Belloy, to whom the only apparent recourse was to find the nearest saloon and shoot himself in the head.”
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    Rarely are classes in financial economics so very entertaining. A lovely history (maybe apocryphal, who knows) about the early days of the CBOT in Chicago.
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  5. “There is no simple remedy for the curse of knowledge, but let me offer a suggestion. Keep a particular person in mind as you teach. That person should be someone you know well—a parent, a spouse, or a best friend (as long as that person is not an economist). Pretend you are explaining the material to them. Are they getting it, or are they lost? If you know this person well, you may be able to more easily empathize with their learning challenges. You might prevent
    yourself from going overboard.”
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    N. Gregory Mankiw comes up with a short six point guideline about how to teach economics better. It is worth going over this list, irrespective of whether you are learning economics or teaching it. Also, taken a look at Eli5?