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Some good economics…

    I realize that some of what I write about economics
may not make a lot of sense to some of you. There are certain
assumptions made that don’t necessairly jibe with common sense. I
thought I’d offer some reading material to the people who want to see
how my mind works… I’ll spare you the more turgid examples and
concentrate on the stuff that is actually interesting. The first one
can be found here:
http://www.econlib.org/library/Bastiat/BasEss1.html

It is titled “What is seen and not seen”. It tackles the sometimes
thorny concept of separating the good economists from the bad. The
short version is that we can’t rely on what is obvious, there are
ramifications to everything. It’s pretty good reading, even if you only
read a third of it you’ll pretty much get the gist…

The second one is a classic. It is entitled “I Pencil”. It makes the
rather outragous claim that no one can build a pencil. What the story
is designed to do is give you a glimpse of how amazingly complicated
the economy is. Everything depends on everything else and trying to
fully understand it is hopeless. Here’s a quick example. How is it that
I can go to any grocery store and be sure that there is bread there?
Have you ever worried that there wouldn’t be any bread the time you
went? Do you realize that there isn’t anyone in charge of makeing sure
that all the grocery stores are stocked with bread? There isn’t anyone
in charge of bread production for this country either! How can all of
the grain producers, truckers, bread makers, grocery stores, farmers,
plastic bag makers, ets able to coordinate with each other ever day
with no one in charge? If you only ever read one piece of economics,
you should read this. It’s short, very easy to read, and to the point.
You’ll have a little better understanding of where I’m coming from…
http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/rdPncl1.html
Isaac

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