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Has to Be a Joke, Because If It’s Not

alhambrapartners.com

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Re: Has to Be a Joke, Because If It’s Not

#31

Post by me_me_me »

bsenftner wrote: post #24
enricozb wrote: post #17

How do I go from not understanding economics/finance, to pretending to understand it? I feel like that finance uniquely is a field that every time I have tried to penetrate I get a mix of unintelligible jargon and mathematics as a facade of rigor. I am comfortable reading both math and programming textbooks, but every finance book I've picked up so far seems to quickly not make any sense to me at all.

I have an MBA in Finance, and after getting to the bottom of the math, it's all just bare faced gambling, dressed up with $10 words. I really wish I could say it was not, but this blog analysis of the Fed and the attitude it voices is spot on. The Economists of the world are fucking idiots.

I have recently finished 'Lost in Math'.

And that was one of the points, apparently physicists switching to economists say math is simplistic and superflous.

Math is math, but it can be used as a window dressing for you opinions.

On the other hand if your field pretends to be science. Also creates and awards itself a Nobel prize and pretends its an actual thing. Well maybe its a sign of a con.

Re: Has to Be a Joke, Because If It’s Not

#32

Post by jbob2000 »

aaronharnly wrote: post #4

The article assumes a shared context of facts and interpretation that makes it unreadable for someone encountering it for the first time.

This is my layman’s understanding;

“The price of Big Macs should be rising at a steady rate. It is bad if the price of Big Macs falls. Let’s put in some policies to make sure the price of Big Macs rises steadily!

Oh wait, they aren’t rising steadily, they’re rising much slower! Our policies aren’t working! Hmm maybe it’s ok to have periods where Big Macs get cheaper, as long as there is an equal period afterwards where they make up that loss and get more expensive. We can call this symmetry!”

The article is basically calling this idea of symmetry a big joke.

Re: Has to Be a Joke, Because If It’s Not

#33

Post by qppo »

freeone3000 wrote: post #13
qppo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US monetary policy has not "failed" pretty much since Nixon. Janet Yellen's tenure is really the only blemish, but only because she didn't raise rates when we could have. I think you're confusing the "Dual Mandate" of the Fed to minimize inflation and maximize employment with some misplaced belief in economics. Every American economist of the last century has realized these are often competing ideals. It's their rais…

And yet somehow they have in fact kept inflation at less than 2% while bringing unemployment to near zero (well, pre-pandemic, as the rest of the article, this year's numbers are screwy). That's weird, right? What's up with that?

That has more to do with globalization and how we measure inflation and unemployment than monetary policy. If you look at markets that aren't influenced as highly by global trade (like housing, healthcare, and education) they are greatly inflated.

Re: Has to Be a Joke, Because If It’s Not

#34

Post by bsenftner »

me_me_me wrote: post #31
bsenftner wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an MBA in Finance, and after getting to the bottom of the math, it's all just bare faced gambling, dressed up with $10 words. I really wish I could say it was not, but this blog analysis of the Fed and the attitude it voices is spot on. The Economists of the world are fucking idiots.

I have recently finished 'Lost in Math'. And that was one of the points, apparently physicists switching to economists say math is simplistic and superflous. Math is math, but it can be used as a window dressing for you opinions. On the other hand if your field pretends to be science. Also creates and awards itself a Nobel prize and pretends its an actual thing. Well maybe its a sign of a con.

Tip of the iceberg: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300249873/whats-wrong-ec... There are also multiple Economist blogs lamenting the overly cruel politics of the industry.

Re: Has to Be a Joke, Because If It’s Not

#35

Post by adwi »

bsenftner wrote: post #24
enricozb wrote: post #17

How do I go from not understanding economics/finance, to pretending to understand it? I feel like that finance uniquely is a field that every time I have tried to penetrate I get a mix of unintelligible jargon and mathematics as a facade of rigor. I am comfortable reading both math and programming textbooks, but every finance book I've picked up so far seems to quickly not make any sense to me at all.

I have an MBA in Finance, and after getting to the bottom of the math, it's all just bare faced gambling, dressed up with $10 words. I really wish I could say it was not, but this blog analysis of the Fed and the attitude it voices is spot on. The Economists of the world are fucking idiots.

Agreed. When that hunch crept in I scrolled to the bio, read this, then immediately hit the back button:

> [The author, in third person] is not an economist, which is probably why he's been able to develop a working model of the global monetary system. His research is unique and informative in ways an economist would never consider.

Re: Has to Be a Joke, Because If It’s Not

#36

Post by nojokes »

freeone3000 wrote: post #9
aaronharnly wrote: post #4

The article assumes a shared context of facts and interpretation that makes it unreadable for someone encountering it for the first time.

While the Federal Reserve talks a lot about how its rate policies have improved the economy, actual figures from inflation and unemployment don't back up any of the improvements they're claiming, and haven't for years. Now, the Fed is moving the goalposts -- saying low unemployment can no longer be a reason for a rate increase, only inflation, since inflation has also stayed lower than the target metric. As inflation…

Yes, all this money "printing" appears to inflate only asset prices. It is a great generator of inequality.

Re: Has to Be a Joke, Because If It’s Not

#37

Post by perl4ever »

bsenftner wrote: post #24
enricozb wrote: post #17

How do I go from not understanding economics/finance, to pretending to understand it? I feel like that finance uniquely is a field that every time I have tried to penetrate I get a mix of unintelligible jargon and mathematics as a facade of rigor. I am comfortable reading both math and programming textbooks, but every finance book I've picked up so far seems to quickly not make any sense to me at all.

I have an MBA in Finance, and after getting to the bottom of the math, it's all just bare faced gambling, dressed up with $10 words. I really wish I could say it was not, but this blog analysis of the Fed and the attitude it voices is spot on. The Economists of the world are fucking idiots.

>I have an MBA in Finance, and after getting to the bottom of the math

There is a distinction between an MBA or finance degree and the field of economics. You might not have gotten quite to the bottom of it.

Of course financial activity has a lot of resemblance to gambling. Mathematicians have been analyzing gambling for a long time, but does that make them the same as anyone playing slots in Vegas?

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