everybody's an economist (or at least a comedian)
posted by Eric Schansberg @ 9:30 AM
7 Comments
SchansBlog
Thanks for coming! I plan to post a lot of interesting articles and comment on a wide range of things-- from political to religious, from private to public, from formal writing on public policy to snippets on random observations.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
About Me
- Name: Eric Schansberg
- Location: Jeffersonville, Indiana, United States
First and foremost, I am saved by God's grace as manifested most clearly through the atoning death of Jesus Christ-- and thus, adopted into His family. As a result, I increasingly seek to extend His grace to others in my daily life. On the home front, I am a husband and father to four young men (two by adoption and two the more conventional way). Professionally, I am an economist who loves to teach and is active in public policy circles. Vocationally, I am an active writer and the author of three books (one on the book of Joshua; two on public policy-- one secular, one Christian). Finally, I am the co-author of a 21-month discipleship curriculum, Thoroughly Equipped (and a lighter 36-week version), for developing competent lay-leaders in the Church. Related to that work, Kurt and I have two books, Enough Horses in the Barn and Roll Up Your Sleeves.
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7 Comments:
Actually, the big circle should be labeled "things economists do not agree upon" and the small circle should be labeled "things economists agree upon."
A contradictory Venn diagram-- from a math guy?! ;-)
And to the point I think you're trying to make, the things over which we disagree are, in fact, far smaller than the things over which we agree.
I suspect that the same could be said for other fields in the public eye; the debates are what make the news.
You're right, it's not a correct Venn diagram. But speaking as a non-economist who follows the news, it may be that economists disagree on relatively few things, but those disagreements seem to be pretty big.
One more reason for people not to think they're economists!
Do people disagree about stuff in field of math? I don't know of anything! In other fields, there's probably a range. A version of this would be saying biologists disagree a lot because I focus on their different takes about evolution-- or that political scientists disagree about a lot within their field-- or historians because...
Econ is arguably more public than the others, so the disagreements probably get more play.
Eric, I have to side William on this one.
And since you brought it up here's a sociological explanation of the Venn:
If more economists actually seemed to know what was going on, maybe the rest of wouldn't have to play "wannabe".
you and William on the same side? maybe I should reconsider...
nahh! no, seriously, this is a confusion about Macro vs. Micro. In Micro, there agreement on most things; even within Macro, there is considerable agreement.
"even within Macro, there is considerable agreement"
I would say this statement is highly dependent upon the assumptions one uses to interpret data & determine "solutions" which appear to vary to the extreme among macroeconomists.
Also, nearly all of the mainstream PhDs failed to predict the Crash of '08.
In any case, two very good reasons to figure things out for yourself.
BTW, what are they predicting these days?
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