New Class!

This blog will feature my ECON 3010 Managerial Economics class for the fall semester.

Just about everything between now and the end of the year will be written by them. Everything prior to this is from my two principles classes from this past summer.

Am I thinking about a degree in economics?…NO!

As we near the end of the summer semester, it’s time to reflect back on what I’ve learned. Dr Tufte’s website asks the question Are you thinking about a degree in economics? Maybe at the beginning of class you are, but by the end the answer might have changed, here’s why.

In the beginning things make sense, you’ve got your short run and your long run and growth etc. pretty straight forward. Then everything changes. It goes kind of like this.

When you’re in a recession you actually might be coming out but don’t know it and by the time you’re coming out you might be going back into one somewhere in there there’s a trough but you can only figure out when that came later when you realized expansion was taking place and let me show you how this works by this graph see that curve it’s not really a curve because it’s a straight line but then in can bow in or out and this can make it move this way but if that happens it can move that way but it will always return to an equilibrium but by then it has already moved because we forgot to factor in this and contraction is actually expansion and even though people have more money they’re poorer and that Keynes guy had it all figured out until some other guy figured out he didn’t then there’s the multiplier effect………….oh wait… I understood that and velocity isn’t constant but really close is that E=MC^2 too late write down these three sentences and then cross them out because that’s not the way it is because a surplus isn’t good and a deficit isn’t bad.

So I’ve given it some thought, and I’ve decided economics is not for me!

And besides, I can’t afford the expensive haircut!

Thanks Dr. Tufte it’s been a great summer.

Technology - Can we keep up?

I was talking with a friend the other day about how fast technology is advancing and how hard it is to keep up with it all. It seems like today everyone is expected to have a car, an up-to-date computer with internet access and e-mail, a cell-phone, etc. Everything that we could have only dreamed of 10-20 years ago we're expected to have now.

Applying this to businesses today, I found an article from USA Today that is entitled "Technology: Keeping up with Changing Times." It discusses the rapid growth in technology in the business world, and how companies are having a hard time keeping up with the latest innovations. With the internet now a major part of the business world, it is expected for businesses to have a web page that they can use to do business over the internet. Also, we have become such a "Now" society, that if a business can't provide a good or service anytime and do it quickly, then they go out of business. As a result, it has become more and more difficult to start a small business and have it survive amidst the high competition in fighting the larger corporations. Is the advancing technology all a good thing, or are we going to become so competetive that we burn ourselves out?

Barter System

The Barter System was around for a long time and to be honest I believe it still exists today, only not in such a high volume form. Let me explain. Early in the morning as I am walking in and out of stores delivering newspapers, I can smell the fresh aroma of hot donuts. I use to trade a copy of my morning paper for a dozen of the donut-man's donuts. I got what I wanted, and the donut-man got a free paper from the trade. One may look at the trade and believe that perhaps I got the better end of the bargain, or just the other way around. That is why the barter system is not in pratice today. Because one may believe their product is worth more than another's. Bartering could also change based on the supply of a product one may have. The more you have of something the easier it is to give it away for a lower trade; like in my case for example. If I only had one newspaper then perhaps I would insist on getting more than one dozen donuts. Or the donut-man might not trade a dozen donuts for only one paper if he only had one dozen.

There had to be away that people agreed on that counted the same all of the time. So, coins were invented first. After people got tired of carrying around tons of coins where ever they went, paper money was invented. I am sure everyone agrees that this is a far better medium of exchange. With that said, I also believe that the Barter System will be in effect in small ways for years to come.

Is the Deficit something to be scared about.

Today, our economy will go through several deficits and surpluses in each ficial year. Then at the end of the ficial year we can determine as a country weather we had a deficit or a surplus. The interesting fact is that the government is continually paying off and borrowing money all the time, through buying and selling bonds. The government is always paying off its deficit through rolling over our tax money. The only problem is too high of a deficit can effect inflation and the GDP level.

If the government could reduce its spending with the economy still booming, then we would be in favor of surpluses. Some of the ways the government could reduce it spending is by health care costs, Social Security, and even Medicare costs. However, the only problem is we as a nation are getting ready to have one of the largest retirements periods coming up; the baby boomers.

Inflation has been at a very steady rate for a long period of time, there is really only one way for it to go; up. With inflation up and the government spending more money on health care costs for the future baby boomers, our deficit will go even higher than what I believe most people are expecting it to.

Weekend at Fidel’s

Cuba’s economy is continuing down the cliff as it strives to reach bottom. Cuba has reluctantly allowed some capitalism into its economy by way of foreign investment. Then the government makes it difficult to truly allow it to work. The disaster is now “irrevocable” is a piece on the Economist.com website detailing the current woes of the Cuban economy. The article states that, “The Cuban ministry for foreign investment has held a series of meetings with European businessmen to try to iron things out. But the minister, Marta Lomas, made it clear that Cuba was not about to change its spots. “You know the rules when you get here,” she told her audience. President Fidel Castro, too, has always made it clear that he will not let such paltry matters as economic growth dilute the purity of his revolution. Makes one wonder if Fidel is really still alive or Cuban’s are re-living the Weekend at Bernie’s movie and driving around with him propped up in the back of their car until they can figure out how to come up with a way to revive the economy.

Bloggers get Blogged

Although this post doesn’t qualify for the macro requirements, I think the class might find this one interesting. Cybertourists in Boston takes a look and critiques the bloggers who were given credentials to attend the Democrat National Convention. Unfortunately for those that attended they came up a little short in their writings. A case that I think members of the class including myself would admit to during the short time we’ve had to shine this semester. Just like anything that is still in the developing stages there’s always room for improvement. Hopefully with time the bloggers will show their true ability and gain respect deserving of their capabilities. They’ll get another chance at the Republican National Convention in a month.

Trading with Mexico

I just read an article about Senater Mike Crapo, and Mexicos President Vincent Fox at www.americanpatrol.com . In this short artical they were talking about more farm trade with Mexico, and looser migration laws. The artical dident go into much detail about eney ideas of what they want to do, but it said that the President of Mexico is a strong supporter of a free trade market and he thinks it would create more trade in the long run.

If I was to have read this artical before I took this class, I would have thought it was a dumb idea, not for eney paticular reason, I just thought it would be a dumb idea. But now I can see that this would effect a lot of things, like produce prices in the U.S., and also make Mexicos econimy richer, making them trade more with us. I can now look at this as being a positve action that would help the us econimy.

But I would like to know what the class thinks about this, do you see it as being positve, or create more problims then its worth?