Pantsless Economist

Academics vs. Beer

2009-12-01T22:48:00.002-05:00

Being a full-time worker bee, a part-time grad student, a friendly socializer, and a doer of a hodgepodge of other things (gym goer, volunteerer, etc) I face time constraints in life.

The hodgepodge always is the first to get axed from my schedule.

Work can't really get axed, with the exception of taking a couple hours off now and then. I like making money and having a job.

So the two variables here that I value are school and socializing. Socializing generally involves alcohol. This leads to the epic, ongoing, and longstanding conflict of academics vs. beer.

I was sad today because my awesome ex-supervisor (he retired in July) set up a happy hour. I thought about going before class, because it was feasible, but in the end decided to be responsible since I had a HUGE presentation.

School won the battle tonight.

But not the war.

PHD?

2009-11-08T13:42:00.002-05:00

I think I'm gonna switch from Masters to Phd! There are lots of things that annoy me about my grad program, but I can do it cheaply and with relative quickness and ease...I'm excited because I like classes. Not psyched about the dissertation.

Random and Minor Things that are Pissing Me Off

2009-11-01T17:59:00.003-05:00

1) The Favre Cam is stupid. You've got to be kidding me.

2) MS Word's equation editor is the most pointless thing I have ever encountered in my entire life. AND it is compatible with nothing, not even previous versions of itself.

3) My room is messy. It's cold. It's now dark as well, thanks to Daylight Savings Time.

4) There's a guy in one of my classes whose wife recently had a kid and apparently his sense of humor has gone the way of his free time, because he seemed offended when I jokingly asked how the spawn was doing. And he gets all "won't somebody think of the children"?!?! Dude for as libertarian as you are, and for how much you want to screw poor people, I'm surprised by your newfound empathy toward society's least productive people.

5) There's a really annoying person in another one of my classes. She seems to think the teacher is speaking directly to her and says "mm hmm, yeah, ohhh right" as he is lecturing. She also cuts people off when they're speaking because her interesting and unique viewpoint MUST be heard.

6) My fantasy football team sucks and I want to cry.

7) This is NOT pissing me off--My Life Is Average is the best waste of time. It's hilarious.

Busy Bee

2009-10-17T00:53:00.002-04:00

Grad School + Full Time Job = Dark Circles

I needz a nap.

Fortunately, the forecast calls for cold wind and rain all weekend (WTF, it's only October 16, it should NOT be 40 degrees). So I won't be itching to go play outside, at least, and I'll crack down and get my work done.

That's the plan anyway.

owwww

2009-10-09T22:43:00.002-04:00

So, I guess I have bad ankles. I've always been clumsy, but it's started to dawn on me that sometimes, my ankles give out for no apparent reason.

So I hurt it again the other day playing ultimate. of course, it's stupid to play ultimate frisbee, about 4 weeks after a very bad sprain--where pain and swelling are still present--without a brace, and wearing running shoes--in other words, no cleat-spikes to keep me from slipping, and no ankle support to keep me from twisting.

I've injured the same ankle over and over again, since high school. It sucks, because you don't build up a resistance or anything. You just get more injury prone! This is lame.

I was incredibly petulant in high school, as were a number of girls on my team. I refused to wear tennis shoes--which have ankle support, and instead wore running shoes, mainly because I had running shoes and didn't want to cough up another $75. so I hurt myself a few times--the first wasn't bad, the second I was sidelined for a month.

What happened in my bad injury about a month ago--the one that still hadn't healed when I decided to test my limits--was I got semi-drunk and stepped off a curb. Mother f-er!

Zen and economics

2009-10-05T23:49:00.001-04:00

So, I was looking over some old notes about bubbles from a previous class.

My notes said:

p(1-π) --> P(t+1) collapses to zero

I read my bad handwriting as:

p(1-π) --> P(t+1) collapses to zen

Basically this is the probability that the bubble associated with a certain asset (stock share, beanie baby, tulip, housing) will burst in the next time period.

Imagine if instead of the housing bubble bursting in 2007, it had just gone to zen. I like my way better.

The Opposite of Fun

2009-10-02T21:14:00.000-04:00

Work clothes are boring. I get excited on days when I wear my bright yellow shirt because it's about as wild as I can get. That's depressing. One of the few things I miss about my old job was that we could wear ripped up jeans, flip flops, shorts, anything, and people looked at you strangely if you wore so much as a collared shirt.

I have such fond memories of getting onto the metro wearing jeans and a t-shirt and seeing all of the other worker bees wearing skirts and structured jackets, and thinking, HAHA SUCKERS.

I work for the government. Things are rather formal, and although the government is making a huge effort to get all up with the web 2.0 (the Interior Department has a twitter account, the State Department has a Flickr page), the dress code has not changed and likely never will.

I just wish I didn't have to iron.

Slug

2009-10-02T12:57:00.000-04:00

I get the day off work while new furniture is installed in the underground lair that I work in. I have an office (everyone does) but I miss having a cube. It's more open and friendly, and there is more of an incentive to do your work and not dick around on Jezebel all day when other people can see your computer screen.

So today I've been engaging in some serious sluglike behavior. I haven't changed out of pajamas, I haven't done anything remotely productive, and as good as my intentions are, I probably won't.

Magic Eye

2009-09-30T00:13:00.000-04:00

I have one nearsighted eye and one farsighted eye. My farsighted eye isn't so bad, the prescription is only about +1.25 or something. My nearsighted eye sucks. (The prescription is -3, which isn't that bad considering my sister wears a -7.5 or something.)

To remedy my vision, I wear a contact in my nearsighted eye. The other eye just isn't bad enough to bother with.

Now here's the part that horrifies people. I never take out my contact. Never. I wear a two-week contact in my right eye, but I leave it in generally for a 6 or 8 weeks, continuously, and I sleep with it in. Contacts aren't made to last forever, so eventually it gets old and falls out or something, and I put a new one in. I've been working with this system for a few years now, and it seems to work. I never even realize it's there. Knock on wood, of course, because I know leaving them in can cause problems in some instances. But I really think I have a magical eyeball. Except for the part where it can't see.

May I be excused? My brain is full.

2009-09-27T23:29:00.001-04:00

I meant for this to be a blog about economics, but going to school for econ, as well as dealing with it somewhat in my full time job, has rendered me unable to think about anything but puppies and LOLcats and whatever frivolous crap I write about here in my free time. Not that LOLcats are frivolous or anything.

Songs!

2009-09-27T22:58:00.000-04:00

I'm making a playlist of depressing-uplifting songs. You know, the kind that are about how much life sucks but there's something vaguely uplifting about the lyrics.

So far--

John Prine, Illegal Smile
Otis Redding, Dock of the Bay
Rehab, Sittin at a Bar
Blues Traveler, The Mountains Win Again

I also love bands where there's a disconnect between the style of their songs, and the lyrics. The Format (RIP) is one of those--super upbeat songs with utterly depressing lyrics. On the other end of it, The Cure--they have some happy songs, but Robert Smith does a great job of making it sound depressing.

Sisyphus Cat tries again

2009-09-26T14:36:00.000-04:00

There's really nothing better than mixing a nerdy Greek mythology reference with LOLSpeak.

So, things have been overwhelming lately--I'm pretty sleep deprived, thanks to grad school, and just in general feeling like roadkill for a number of reasons, some of which are detailed in previous posts, some aren't. I had a professor this summer who was incredibly demanding and made my life pretty painful and at the end told us he did that to demonstrate that just showing up and not quitting was one of the most important skills you could learn. I'm trying to remember that, and not just check out, but there's nothing I want to do more than just sleep for the next several days.

My favorite character in Greek mythology is Laocoon, a Trojan who just really got a raw deal. In Vergil's Aeneid he said the now famous phrase, "I fear the Greeks, even when bearing gifts;" he was warning against bringing in the Trojan Horse. Then he was eaten by sea serpents, and the Trojans brought the horse into their walls.

How I Feel Today

2009-09-20T16:34:00.000-04:00

Weedwhacker

2009-09-20T11:59:00.000-04:00

Cutting the grass is one of the tasks my roommates and I decided I should be my responsibility, mostly because I kinda enjoy it. I always loved peeling wet grass choppings after mowing from the wheels of the lawnmower, and the smell, and the general coolness of operating heavy machinery.

Our backyard is pretty small, so we just have a weedwhacker. It usually does the job. However, it's been a few weeks since I've cut grass and our backyard is starting to look like Vietnam. It's hiding a lot of dog poop that my roommate hasn't picked up (her dog). I can't really blame her. It's hard to find poop in the jungle that's our yard currently. This could be a movie or a video game--armed only with a string trimmer, girl must fight against demons such as dog poop, pieces of sticks that fly up and hit you in the face, hidden holes and obstacles, and avoid chopping cable wires, plants my roommate likes, and her own ankles.

A Case of the Blahs

2009-09-20T09:56:00.000-04:00

So much homework, so many ways to procrastinate. FML. Trying to drag myself out of bed. Need coffee. I feel like a zombie. Braaaaaiiinnnsss...

I has a sad

2009-09-19T18:39:00.000-04:00

So I got dumped last night. I'm doing some constrained optimization problems because it's more fun than the actual homework I should be doing, drinking beer, and watching football. I should drink faster but that could lead to bad things. I'm rather sad right now. Oooh, maybe not. I just saw a fantastic play in the VT-Nebraska game. And...YES YES YES YES TD FOR TECH!

Last time I broke up with someone (it was mutual but that didn't make it any easier) I consumed nothing but beer for about 2 weeks straight. I lost roughly 15 pounds. I was just kind of in this haze for awhile, and it was compounded by the fact that my parents beloved cat died just a day before we broke up. I think the part about the cat may have been worse, because all of my memories with him are fond, except when he licked my eyebrows in the morning but even that was kind of cute. I think the first time after that that I remember laughing really, really hard was about 2 months later at a friend's wedding. Yeah, so, this one isn't all that bad. We'll still be friends. Time heals all wounds.

Image from xkcd.

It's back!

2009-09-10T22:03:00.000-04:00

Football, that is. Unfortunately, grad school is also back and I has butt-loads of reading to do.

Today I tried to go shopping after work, for work clothes, upon realizing that I just don't have that many. Shopping is not an activity I have patience for. And, since when does it cost $100 for a pair of pants? (Contrary to my nom-de-plume, I actually have to wear them sometimes, especially if I ride my bike.) I didn't buy anything. Fail. I'll try again soon.

I've done it again

2009-09-02T21:16:00.000-04:00

I forgot about my blog. Here's an econ post, though.

So, I attend a graduate institution that's rather notorious for its free-market philosophy. There are many followers of Freidrich von Hayek and Milton Friedman. This frustrates me for a number of reasons. Several faculty members--and to a greater degree, the students--can get downright nasty about their beliefs, dismissing anyone who supports universal healthcare, for example, as a socialist. I'd best be described as Keynesian, and contrary to popular belief, I don't want to dismantle free markets. I want to make the market system better and more efficient. And I believe that regulation has a role to play in that.

I'm not denying Friedman or Hayek's contributions. I agree with Friedman on many issues--most notably, the natural rate of unemployment, though Ed Phelps deserves credit there too. Friedman was very interested in data and empirical evidence, and I can respect that. I have a harder time with Hayek. He shunned mathematical and statistical analysis of the social sciences because it can't accurately describe the real world. This I vehemently disagree with, but I understand his reasoning and am willing to read and understand.

I had a professor this past spring whose extent of explaining Keynes consisted of drawing an IS-LM curve on the board, muttering a few sentences, and making a nasty comment about Paul Krugman before moving onto to talking about the Coase Theorem. There are many examples, just like this one, and it bothers me deeply.

i has a sleepy

2009-08-24T20:18:00.001-04:00

It turns out when I started this blog I did what I always do: I wrote a few posts, then forgot my blog existed. This has happened since my days of having a diary in first grade. My posts were pretty much like this:

Day 1: Today I went to school and I ate chicken for dinner, and it was delicious.

Day 2: HAHAHA I just realized "diary" sounds like "diarrhea"

That's where it ends.

I just bought a bike a week ago. I had one when I was younger, and didn't ride much after high school. I've been trying to ride whenever I can--to the metro in the morning, to the grocery store, to the gym. Basically errands and commuting, no more than a couple miles, though I want to go on a long ride sometime.

This morning I knew trouble would be waiting for me in the afternoon. Why, you ask? Well, as I was riding to work, I was thinking how nice and leisurely the ride was. There were lots of downward slopes, but the whole ride was pretty much on a decline and I barely needed to pedal. I knew coming back home would be unpleasant. And it was! I'm going to stick with it, though, because it has to get easier...right? And it sure beats riding the bus.

Happy new year!

2009-01-01T21:49:00.000-05:00

May 2009 bring peace, prosperity, and better regulation of financial markets. I think we're moving toward an era of stricter regulation, and I hope this can be achieved in a balanced way, without over-regulating.

Real Business Cycles...sigh

2008-12-28T21:14:00.000-05:00

Casey B. Mulligan makes the case that unemployment is voluntary.

The recent decrease in employment may be due less to employers’ unwillingness to hire more workers and more to workers’ unwillingness to work. ... Suppose, just for the moment, that people were less willing to work, with no change in the demand for their services. This means that employees would have to be more productive because they have to get by with fewer workers.

So, Casey B. Mulligan expounds here that workers are not having the right financial incentives to work at their jobs. Right, because the loss of 500,000+ jobs in November was because people were just, you know, not making enough! Without digging up data from BLS (because I don't feel like it) common sense should prevail here. The unemployment rate was 6.7% last time I checked and people have lost equity in their homes, value in their investments and 401(k)s -- they aren't quitting their jobs to watch Dynasty reruns until something better comes along because the chances of something better coming along are slim, especially in the arena where many of the layoffs and job losses have occurred, in the financial sector.

Anyway, Mulligan seems to imply here that because hours worked are down, this is a choice made by the employee. However, companies often cut back hours, benefits, etc., before they resort to layoffs. I'm glancing through the data on Economagic and it looks like hours worked have dropped off before the unemployment rate did. The data I'm looking at for hours worked isn't great, though, it's not seasonally adjusted and it's divvied up into Male and Female categories but no overall category.

Mulligan sums up his argument:

... we learn a lot about today’s recession from the conclusion that labor supply – not labor demand – should be blamed. First of all, it suggests that a fundamental solution to the recession would encourage labor supply (perhaps cutting personal income tax rates, so people can keep more of their wages), rather than tinker with demand.

Honestly, what he's doing here is making arguments based on unsubstantiated claims, models based on cute little graphs from Econ 101, and everyone's favorite theory with no empirical evidence--the Laffer Curve.

So, back to Real Business Cycles. There's an assumption in Real Business Cycle theory that all unemployment is voluntary. In theory, you can make this work: There's plenty of people who choose unemployment if they can't find a job in their field, because they'd rather wait it out than take a job at, say, Burger King. In theory, you can always start your own business in a capitalist society. But the problems with this assumption is that there are sometimes simply more people than available jobs. Or starting your own business is overly burdensome. There exist imperfections in credit markets (you don't say...). So, I shall blame labor demand.

The rest of the theory is basically "make hay while the sun shines." In an RBC world the economy is always doing the best it can, so any government intervention will be neutral at best, harmful at worst. And I don't buy it. The theory and the model fit business cycle facts, but I feel like the model was developed around the data, created to emphasize this nice conservative point of view.

At any rate, I can't hold a candle compared to what one of my favorite economists, Larry Summers, had to say in his epic smackdown of Real Business Cycle Theory. Check it out here: http://www.minneapolisfed.org/research/QR/QR1043.pdf

Welcome to my blog

2008-09-13T20:38:00.001-04:00

Hello friends, and welcome to Pantsless Economist's blog! Just what the world needs, another econoblog...