Go to a prestigious school? I dunno. Macro Econ is more policy and less baked in the math compared to micro. I think the fundamentals in micro are more rigorous though the one tenant of the whole field — that people act rationally and seek to maximize their utility on things — is bogus. People are dumb or at least often irrational. Groups of people though might act rationally. I think the modeling for micro that makes the most sense is the theory behind firms and how firms operate.
Ask HN: How can I learn macroeconomics properly?
31–40 of 141 posts
Re: Ask HN: How can I learn macroeconomics properly?
#32I have a degree in economics. Both of my parents have PhD’s in economics from MIT and were professors of economics with dozens of published works. I grew up around economists including multiple Nobel prizes winners in economics. None of this has anything to do with being good at investing on a personal level. Like nothing, in fact I would argue that it’s probably harmful and in my experience causes people to overthin…
Agree very much with this. Have an economics degree, PhD from a finance department (although my research was not finance). Personally, with a solid grasp of calculus II, I breezed through my economics degree. Including graduate level courses. My two cents are that an understanding of stats and honing probabilistic intuition (a devilish thing to do) is much more important. Of course, the basic education helps you grok things, how/why a central bank influences an economy, but you may be led astray if you put too much faith into things like the Phillips curve. I would suggest reading any respected macro textbook as well as Hull for learning how financial instruments are priced. You’ll quickly learn that diversifying will get you 95% of the way there with 100% of your mental well-being intact. If you want to be fancy at your cocktail parties, throw a Markowitz optimization over your portfolio. Unless you are willing to devote your entire time finding an edge, you just will not be able to compete with hedge funds and their arsenal of tools, chief among them is a constant stream of intelligent and well paid people to devote their entire time doing it.
Re: Ask HN: How can I learn macroeconomics properly?
#33With full warning that it is heterodox, stock-flow macroeconomic models (lots here on it at the Levy Institute: https://www.levyinstitute.org/publications/a-stock-flow-appr... ) is another framework for macroeconomic thinking which is a great supplement to traditional equilibrium-based approaches. I happen to find stock-flow models resonate better with my own intuitions.
Re: Ask HN: How can I learn macroeconomics properly?
#34[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: How can I learn macroeconomics properly?
#35I distinctly remember the first lesson of my macroeconomics class. It was simply about how to judge and discuss ideas. The reason being that there are multiple schools of thoughts and the most important thing you can learn is how to judge the merits of each on your own.
Re: Ask HN: How can I learn macroeconomics properly?
#36There are 2 groups of people who spend a lot of time thinking about macro economics. 1) Professors who compete for prestige and make fun sounding theories like MMT and tend to have very little skin in the game if their theories create value. 2) Portfolio managers who stand to make or lose enormous sums of money if they can make detailed and accurate predictions based off of macroeconomic analysis. I'd rather spend my…
good distinction. 'applied' macroeconomics is what I really want
[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: How can I learn macroeconomics properly?
#37I have a degree in economics. Both of my parents have PhD’s in economics from MIT and were professors of economics with dozens of published works. I grew up around economists including multiple Nobel prizes winners in economics. None of this has anything to do with being good at investing on a personal level. Like nothing, in fact I would argue that it’s probably harmful and in my experience causes people to overthin…
Pretty much what I was thinking, but thank you for bringing some authority so it's not just an opinion.
Re: Ask HN: How can I learn macroeconomics properly?
#38MIT OpenCourseWare [1] is your best bet here.
Re: Ask HN: How can I learn macroeconomics properly?
#39I have this resource bookmarked from some time ago, check it out.
https://www.core-econ.org/the-economy/book/text/0-3-contents...
Re: Ask HN: How can I learn macroeconomics properly?
#40Not "Properly" but I find Economics Explained on Youtube very educational and insightful, and to my limited knowledge quite balanced and well researched: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ4AMrDcNrfy3X6nsU8-rPg
Economics Explained got some of the worst analyses I've seen on youtube, like that one video he asserts that the Netherlands is the most unequal country in the world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW_kw6OPXc0