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Why Be Optimistic (part 2)
Intro: I rewrote this essay for a friend of mine in Oxford. It turned out better than take one, so I am posting the upgrade with more links ( Read more... ) -
Supply and Demand (econ essay)
How is the price of things determined? When we go to the store, the prices are all written out on the things we buy. The temptation is to assume that the store decides how much things should cost, and technically that is true to some degree. But if that were the whole truth, why wouldn't they raise prices indefinitely? If the price is too high ( Read more... ) -
The New Epoch We Live In
We are past the threshold. Our grandparents and great-grandparents were the pioneers. There was no precise date, it happened slowly by our modern standards, although in the history of the universe, it was the blink of an eye. Everything has changed, but only a few realize it, because to us, it has been the same our entire lives. It's just that ( Read more... ) -
A Framework for Human Action
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us." -J.R.R. Tolkien ( Read more... ) -
Interest rates, Intermediate Macro
The interest rate is a price unlike any other. It is the price of money today in terms of money tomorrow. The supply curve for the interest rate consists of people willing to lend out money at various interest rates. The demand curve is how much money people want to borrow at various interest rates. When the interest rate is high, the cost of ( Read more... ) -
What is money?
Money is defined not by what it physically is, but by what it does. Money allows people to engage in indirect exchange. Without money, people would have to barter, which requires a double coincidence of wants; one person must have what the other person wants and want what the other person has and be willing to trade. However, using money, people ( Read more... ) -
Outline of Essay Topics
Introduction to Economics ( Read more... ) -
New Project
Ever since meeting Brian, my New Year's resolution decisions have been made a lot easier. His resolutions are often quite intricate and multifaceted. [This was my first ever successful hyperlink without referencing an HTML guide] Anyway, I just pick one of his many resolutions and this year I've decided to take #2 (modified), write an economics ( Read more... ) -
End of the Semester
Sometimes time flies, and sometimes it goes very slowly. I've been in Oxford for exactly 3 months now and it feels like I've been here forever. I vaguely remember what my job was like, but it seems like another lifetime ago, as distant from me as college. I enjoyed my time here, and I learned quite a bit. It was nice to get a perspective on ( Read more... ) -
The Hubris of Cultural Planning
Culture is a strange animal. In fact, it's odd that we have a word at all for such a diverse set of information, norms, institutions, art, knowledge and behaviours. Anything passed down from parent to child could be culture, and really all human knowledge that is commonly held could properly be called "culture ( Read more... )