How do I learn about economics?

[Japher]

Yeah, KH, you've arrived!

Best way to learn economics is to try and sale something to someone who doesn't want it.

[Adam Smith]

Asher:

Yes, there are bull****ters out there. But talking about economic issues doesn’t make somebody an economist any more than talking about medical issues makes somebody a physician. In both cases there is a certain amount of knowledge to be acquired in order to have any credibility. That’s why in my professional life I tend to ignore anybody who isn’t doesn’t have a Ph. D. after their name. (But note that some Ph. D.’s such has Arthur Laffer, Paul Craig Roberts, and Phil Gramm have drank the Kool Aid and become political bull****ters.)

What sort of knowledge needs to be acquired? Ramo has it right – a little math (mainly optimization), micro, (learn well), then macro. Micro can be broken down to a few basic testable hypotheses, and everything else follows from that. You would be surprised how many bull****ters write things that flagrantly violate the basics.

As far as an econ degree being worthless, I’ve done pretty well. (BA in Economics, Applied Mathematics; MA, Ph. D. Economics)

KH:

The second chapter is on the Philips Curve because Blinder organizes the discussion around current policy issues: inflation and unemployment, fiscal and monetary policy, protectionism, the environment, tax reform.

[Kuciwalker]

AS: Asher is just trolling Spikey.

[Grandpa Troll]

Well if you and AS think it's good I recommend it to Elok too

No kidding, I also agree, over the many years here, they seem to offer the most sound and straight forward advice

[Provost Harrison]

Just spout random pseudoscientific bull**** and intersperse a few comments about supply and demand here and there and you are there ;0

[Elok]

stocks and bonds and options and other speaking in tongues

As Japher say, this falls more under the heading of "finance".

See, I don't know the difference between economics and finance, that's how clueless I am. I'll have to look into AS's suggestion. WRT learning math, it's required that I grasp the *theory* of math, right? Because I'll never be all that great at the practice of it. I flunked Calculus, or would have if I hadn't had a very kind teacher. Straight D's.

[Lul Thyme]

I've even tried Simple English Wikipedia, but that's not really a reliable source (BTW, check out http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Mechanics for a laugh. Whatever physicist wrote it got about halfway through before he forgot whom he was writing for--or succumbed to temptation--and started using Greek symbols and equations).

Link is wrong, you need to de-capitalize the "m".

Plus it also says :
The English used in this article or section may not be easy for everybody to understand.
You can help Wikipedia by making this page or section simpler.
So they are already aware of the problem

[duke o' york]

Despite his useless post here, if I ever wanted to know anything about economics then I'd ask Dr Spork.

[Elok]

Okay then, http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mechanics it is. And I noticed that they saw the problem, but it's still pretty funny IMO, to watch it start simple, gradually and inevitably become a little more complicated, then BOOM it's all symbols. Then again, I have a peculiar sense of humor.

[Asher]

Quiet - he didn't ask for advice on how to fix his computer so there's no value for you to add here.

It's funny you mention that, because the people on this site that repair computers for a living all have BAs like yours.

[DirtyMartini]

Say something stupid where KH will see it. You'll get schooled soon enough.

You know he just makes 90% of that stuff up out of whole cloth right? I mean WTF is a boson? That's clearly BS.

[Asher]

You know he just makes 90% of that stuff up out of whole cloth right? I mean WTF is a boson? That's clearly BS.

bosom, not boson.

[Lul Thyme]

Okay then, http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mechanics it is. And I noticed that they saw the problem, but it's still pretty funny IMO, to watch it start simple, gradually and inevitably become a little more complicated, then BOOM it's all symbols. Then again, I have a peculiar sense of humor.

I also thought it was pretty funny.
It actually revert to "simple" mode after that "example", so it's just that section.

[DirtyMartini]

bosom, not boson.

so he studies the physical properties of bosoms? that makes more sense. So all that "Higgs sector phenonmenology" probably consists of making observations like:

0915: pleasant jiggling, left >> right
1045: during vigorous exercise, extreme promience of the "blue vein appearance of Whitfield"
1102: drooping...sad, so sad...

and so forth.

[Felch]

It's thankless research, but someone has to do it.