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So I was looking at THIS thread, and there was ALOT of text. I consider myself a smart guy, and I also consider TLNet to be way above the normal IQ range.
However, I don't really remember a lot from Economics, since it was a blow off class. I do regret not remembering most of the terminology we went over. I was at the thrift store, and saw this little book about basic terminology, and shit a average person would need to know. Knowledge about mortgages, and etc..
I didn't buy it though, and I regret it. It would of come in handy.
So when it comes down to it. I feel mildly slow about a lot of what was talked about in the thread.
Could anyone sum it up in a paragraph? I know we are in a recession, but a lot of people were talking about several things, and it made me super worried. I also saw a lot of economic theories, and what not.
Economics, and Math have never been my strong note. History, and Philosophy has always been.
After taking a look at that thread. I just can't help feeling mildly worried about my Mothers job, and my Fathers business. My Dad co owns a mechanic shop, and the whole gas crises might either be good, bad for him in the long run. I honestly don't have a idea.
I guess I just feel slightly bad. I'm going to be 19 on the 27th of this month, and I currently don't have a job. I had a job at Target, but that's a whole different story. I also finished my first year of College, and still have no clue what to do.
My heads always tipping over each side between making a lot of money, and doing something I love. I still haven't figured it all out.
I also finished playing some Bioshock, and that story really depresses the soul.
Aww god. Teenage angst, and stress.
Also I apologize if making 2 blogs in the same day is against the rules. However, I made the Dance video one before it hit midnight over here, and it's currently 1 am over here in Chicago.
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It would be easier if you have something more specific to ask, rather than the entire situation at hand. If you take a bit of time out to read the Wall Street Journal for like, two or three days, you'll have a fair idea of the current situation.
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Disclaimer: I know jack shit about economics.
I do know that gas prices in the states were kept low by subsidies for the last decade or so. Europeans were experiencing the current gas rates for years before the Americans felt anything.
The oil companies we buy oil from (they do the refining and retail) make paper-thin margins, on the order of cents per gallon. The ones raking it in are the crude oil drillers in the Middle East. But they're not making 3x as much money as before, either.
Drillable oil isn't running out, not exactly. Easily and cheaply reachable oil is the stuff that's running out. We know where a crapload of oil is, but it's gonna cost more and more to get to it. Crude prices aren't going down, they'll keep going up until oil is as scarce as gold, and cost as much.
My hope is that other energy transportation and supply alternatives become much more developed as more money is invested in it, which is happening as people are realizing the need for alternatives. Organic PVCs, cold fusion (heh), air towers, tidal harnesses, all sorts of exotic stuff is being investigated now. I know (as in I expect that) most of the stuff won't pan out, but the stuff that does might make today's oil economy look ridiculous.
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On July 16 2008 15:59 Ecael wrote:
It would be easier if you have something more specific to ask, rather than the entire situation at hand. If you take a bit of time out to read the Wall Street Journal for like, two or three days, you'll have a fair idea of the current situation.
I'll take a look at their website. Hopefully they have free articles, or else I'll have to go to Yahoo news. Thanks for the advice. I appreciate it.
BottleAbuser. Thanks man. That really answered some of my questions. I appreciate it.
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United States24488 Posts
On July 16 2008 15:25 Mickey wrote:
After taking a look at that thread. I just can't help feeling mildly worried about my Mothers job, and my Fathers business. My Dad co owns a mechanic shop, and the whole gas crises might either be good, bad for him in the long run. I honestly don't have a idea.
It could affect your dad's business, but it definitely won't spell disaster in the immediate future (unless something goes wrong that's not directly due to the current state of affairs). It's way too early for mechanic shop demand to be affected that much. Hell, they are still making SUVs -_-a
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here's a piece from Cafe Hayek (the best econ blog out there imo) which should ease your mind:
The Pessimistic Bias
Don Boudreaux
Reading the comments on this post (which in many ways are very much like the comments on many other posts, both here at the Cafe and on other blogs) prompts me to make a couple of points that I've put off making for too long now.
In his indispensable book, The Myth of the Rational Voter, my GMU colleague (and EconLog's) Bryan Caplan finds powerful evidence that non-economists suffer from the "pessimistic bias," which Bryan defines (on page 45 of his book) as
a tendency to overestimate the severity of economic problems and underestimate the (recent) past, present, and future performance of the economy.
Russ and myself (because we're economists?) and many of the commentors here at the Cafe are not pessimistic about the long-run. Problems come; problems are solved. Inability to see the details of the future scare many people; this inability doesn't scare me. As long as individuals have a sufficient quantum of freedom, their self-interest and creativity and inevitable competition will "solve" almost any problem over the long-haul. It's a pattern repeated countless times over the past two-hundred years in capitalist countries. (Please, please don't trot out the Great Depression as a counter-example. First, it was clearly worsened by the Federal Reserve's catastrophically bad monetary policy, and by the worldwide spread of protectionism -- helped along by the Smoot-Hawley tariff. More importantly, there's compelling evidence that the risks of full-throttle socialization of the economy were then real enough to scare investors away until the mid-1940s. And even this greatest of all of America's depressions lasted only ten or fifteen years, depending on how you define the end of the Depression.)
Being optimistic doesn't mean being blindly insistent that the future will always be better than today. Take away enough freedom and, kaboom!, the economy implodes. (Or should I instead say "moobak!"?) Fortunately, though, the capitalist economy is so remarkably robust that it can take lots of beatings -- lots of interventions -- lots of unnecessary taxation -- lots of foolish dissing -- and keep on keeping on at raising living standards.
I'm more optimistic today than I was ten or twenty years ago about just how much counterproductive regulation and taxation the capitalist economy can take before it really starts to fail. But my sense is that the American economy still retains enough freedom -- that property rights remain sufficiently secure -- to ensure continued economic growth over the long run.
I remain bullish over the long run. Very bullish indeed.
if you want to learn econ just subscribe to cafe hayek, econ talk, econlib, marginal revolution, the austrian economists, http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/, will wilkinson, and overcoming bias on your rss reader(which if you don't have, you should get. just use google reader). oh, also look up "milton friedman" on youtube.
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