Blog: Economics in Action

One of the first scholars to grace our lovely discipline was Thomas Malthus. An early proponent of “The end is nigh” syndrome he is mainly remembered for his essay on Population- where he argued the human race was doomed because the population was increasing at a faster rate than our capacity to grow food. Unsurprisingly it was Malthus who claimed for economics the label “The Dismal Science”.

The communist Lenin sharply criticized Malthus theory calling it a “reactionary doctrine” and “an attempt on the part of bourgeois ideologists to exonerate capitalism and to prove the inevitability of privation and misery for the working class under any social system”- and if you don’t understand what that means, don’t worry neither do we.

Fortunately Malthus displayed a trait that many economists would later share – he was wrong. The population didn’t starve and in fact during the nineteenth century the forces of capitalism flourished creating unprecedented wealth for those who owned the means of production. To find why we will need to look at our next great economist Adam Smith.

It is debatable whether economics should actually be defined as being a science. After all, unlike Chemistry or Physics in which you type in some numbers, solve a complex equation and Bob’s your uncle there’s the answer. Economics involves an argument. Whereas science  attempts to prove something is irreversibly, permanently, and everlastingly true. Economics will rarely give a simple answer. Ask 5 economists a question and the joke goes-you’ll get 6 different answers.

Because of this economics has provided us with a wide variety of rich and interesting characters and over the next few weeks we hope to introduce you to some of them!

So you want to be an investment banker?

Banking and finance are a common destination for economics graduates. Banks value economist’s as they have quantitative skills as well as an analytical flair and a good business knowledge.

On good website to see what a life in investment banking is really like visit a great website we found called ‘mergers and inquisitions’ detailing every thing from investment banking ‘lingo’ to an average day and of course the pay- it’s a good starting point for those who want to know models about this highly demanding but very well paid career.

Another great site is the Deuchste bank website which have published this guide

Of course if you don’t fancy doing something like Banking there is a wide variety of subjects which can be studied

A great new page from our friends at INTUTE social sciences and the Economics network is up!

You can find it at: The Internet for Economics.

Useful for if your doing a degree or A-levels.

Is economics useless?

So given all the recent ‘mess’ in world economy what value does ‘modern’ economics have to offer us?  Well it depends on who you ask. Here Stephanie Flanders offers some news and views on whether economics is a ‘busted flush’.

For those of you who don’t/cant be bothered to read the whole thing her argument in a paragraph

‘So, all in all, not an edifying list of complaints. But does that mean economics is a busted flush? I’m afraid not, because even if you think economics got a lot of this stuff wrong, you’d be hard-pressed to understand – or to fix – what’s happening in the global economy today without it. ‘

Maybe it’s not such a good time to be an economist. But it’s one helluva time to study economics.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/stephanieflanders/2009/07/is_economics_a_busted_flush.html

Jobs for graduates- from any discipline- are not as plentiful as they were 2 years ago. After 40 failed job interviews, economics graduate Daniel Seddiqui was fed up and decided to experience lots of different jobs in a short amount of time, 50 jobs in 50 states in 50 weeks.

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Economics is a subject in its own right but it is well known for incorporating other disciplines including sociology, philosophy, politics and maths. Maths in particular is integral to economics.

For some reason maths isn’t often seen as the fascinating subject it is. It allows us to build bridges, measure stars, play hopscotch, make cars, cook; the list seems endless. Economics uses maths to frame and test its theories.

The Radio 4 show More or Less which “is devoted to the powerful, sometimes beautiful, often abused but ever ubiquitous world of numbers” asked well-known guests and contributors to say why they love numbers. The short films include Konnie Huq, Vince Cable and Rick Edwards.

28-year-old Jess Bachman is not only an excellent graphic designer but also has a great understanding of numbers. His site WallStats showcases his work making detailed, colourful charts about economics and politics, including the Fall of General Motors and the Current Financial Crisis. The Evolution of the Household 1950 to today is nearly ten thousand pixels tall and traces the evolution of style as well as lifestyle. He is most proud of Death and Taxes which illustrates US Federal spending in incredible detail.

What would you do with a database of the weights, measurements and life histories of fourteen thousand people? Economic historian Marco Sunder used them to relate life expectancy to Body Mass Index. He reached the surprising conclusion that slightly “overweight” people lived longer.

Nobody’s implying that healthy eating and regular exercise are bad for you. All the advice is that these are worth doing for good reasons but what Sunder found, and was borne out by subsequent medical research, was that people dieting excessively to bring their bodies into the “normal” range were decreasing their life expectancies.

This is one of many intriguing, succinct and occasionally odd economic ideas in “Economics 2.0: What the best minds in Economics can teach you about business and life,” a book released this year by economics journalists Norbert Häring and Olef Storbeck. Other topics they explore include The Economics of Beauty, Why Economists love Sports, How Bad Will the Financial Crisis Get and why Europeans were a great deal shorter in the 17th Century.

Priceless? Free? Surely it differs on what you buy your true love? And why would you try to put a price on it?

The 12 days of Christmas, a popular Christmas song, begins with the line ‘On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me’. An American investment group PNC Wealth Management compile a Christmas Price Index (CPI) every year. Taking the meaning of the song quite literally they calculate the cost of true love.

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