Economists...

CH156378CH156378 Posts: 1,539
edited November 2011 in A Moving Train
An economist is someone who gets rich explaining others why they are poor.


The last severe depression and banking crisis could not have been achieved by normal civil servants and politicians, it required economists involvement.


Contagion: A strory demostrating the possible outcomes from interlinkages in the financial markets.


Two economists sit down to play chess. They study the board for 24 hours and declare a stale-mate.


Q: What does it take to be a good economist?

A: An unshakeable grasp of the obvious!


Q: What's the difference between mathematics and economics?

A: Mathematics is incomprehensible; economics just doesn't make any sense.


An economist is someone who didn't have enough personality to become an accountant.


Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists.


Q: What's the difference between a finance major and an economics major?

A: Opportunity cost


The First Law of Economists: For every economist, there exists an equal and opposite economist.


The Second Law of Economists: They're both wrong.


An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today. - Laurence J. Peter


A study of economics usually reveals that the best time to buy anything is last year. - Marty Allen


I don't think you can spend yourself rich. - George Humphrey


If all economists were laid end to end they would not reach a conclusion. - George Bernard Shaw


An economist is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.


Tariff -- A scale of taxes on imports, designed to protect the domestic producer against the greed of his consumer.


Economists are people who are too smart for their own good and not smart enough for anyone else's.


Economy -- Purchasing the barrel of whiskey that you do not need for the price of the cow that you cannot afford.


An economist is someone who doesn't know what he's talking about - and make you feel it's your fault.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • inmytreeinmytree Posts: 4,741
    perhaps next time you can title these sort of posts correctly...

    i.e., fw;fw;fw Economists...

    thanks... :wave:
  • I suggest you read the link below before posting any more. Economists are criticized mostly for failing to predict the future correctly. May I remind you that to predict the future is impossible. The other main criticism - that they're all free market fundamentalists - is completely destroyed by the data in the link below.

    Empirical data and peer-reviewed research: one
    Bumper sticker claptrap: zero

    A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

    http://chrisauld.com/2011/10/15/myths-a ... conomists/

    Have a super day!

    What the hell does this have to do with Pearl Jam?
  • CH156378CH156378 Posts: 1,539
    Two economists are walking down the street. One sees a dollar lying on the sidewalk, and says so.
    "Obviously not," says the other. "If there were, someone would have picked it up!"
  • Sigh
  • polaris_xpolaris_x Posts: 13,559
    CH156378 wrote:
    Two economists are walking down the street. One sees a dollar lying on the sidewalk, and says so.
    "Obviously not," says the other. "If there were, someone would have picked it up!"

    :lol::lol::lol:
  • pandorapandora Posts: 21,855
    I think they are awesome ... smart and very cool to listen to

    filled with knowledge and good ideas

    loved it the few times I've run into an economist in a bar makes for great conversation ...
    the ones I've met, very grounded and even better great listeners.
  • MotoDCMotoDC Posts: 947
    MH44377 wrote:
    I suggest you read the link below before posting any more. Economists are criticized mostly for failing to predict the future correctly. May I remind you that to predict the future is impossible. The other main criticism - that they're all free market fundamentalists - is completely destroyed by the data in the link below.

    Empirical data and peer-reviewed research: one
    Bumper sticker claptrap: zero

    A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

    http://chrisauld.com/2011/10/15/myths-a ... conomists/

    Have a super day!

    What the hell does this have to do with Pearl Jam?
    Hi, and welcome to AMT?

    FWIW I've never once heard your second "main criticism". As for your first, whether or not "predicting the future is impossible", many economists presume to do so, oftentimes poorly. If I presume to do something, but do it poorly, do I not deserve some criticism?

    Personally, I don't believe that's what economists are for, not literally anyway. There's an implicit predictive quality in "understanding the past in order to guide the future", but that's not the same as "predicting the future". Economists, like any scientist, at their core, are just trying to understand causation. The difference is that the causal laws of economics by their very nature exert their influence more indirectly than those of physics or math.
  • It's well known that economists in general are criticized for being free marketeers. Such criticism normally comes from people who know little about economics. Of course the discipline makes predictions, but there's not a single credible economist - or anyone else for that matter - who presumes to predict the future with any certainty, especially in social matters. I can predict with certainty that if I drop a ball it will fall to the ground. I cannot predict what will happen if the government introduces a 10% VAT.

    You've touched on another important problem: comparing economics to hard sciences such as math and physics. Economics is a social science, not a laboratory one. One cannot control for variables in economics like in, say, chemistry because it happens in the real world, not the lab. Does deficit spending stimulate the economy? Perhaps, but since we don't have a parallel "non-stimulus control" against which to compare results in countries where stimulus was enacted, we can't know for certain. Hence the violent disagreements.

    More importantly, doesn't the band seem tighter on this year's tour than perhaps any other? They are absolutely on fire! I predict - with certainty - a rocking South American tour!
  • CH156378CH156378 Posts: 1,539
    A mathematician, an accountant and an economist apply for the same job.
    The interviewer calls in the mathematician and asks "What do two plus two equal?" The mathematician replies "Four." The interviewer asks "Four, exactly?" The mathematician looks at the interviewer incredulously and says "Yes, four, exactly."

    Then the interviewer calls in the accountant and asks the same question "What do two plus two equal?" The accountant says "On average, four - give or take ten percent, but on average, four."

    Then the interviewer calls in the economist and poses the same question "What do two plus two equal?" The economist gets up, locks the door, closes the shade, sits down next to the interviewer and says "What do you want it to equal?"
  • CH156378CH156378 Posts: 1,539
    Q: Why did God create economists?

    A: In order to make weather forecasters look good.
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