Tim Harford on The Logic of Life

Tim Harford briefly explains his new book, "The Logic of Life"

Category:

Education

Tags:

• TimHarford
• Harford
• UndercoverEconomist
• LogicofLife

[JamesBuddha]

Ye I seen that porno too

far out man

[psikeyhackr]

Double-entry accounting is 700 years old and we have had cheap computers for years. Why haven't economists been advocating the LOGIC of mandatory accounting in the schools for years?

How much do consumers lose on the depreciation of automobiles world wide every year? There have been 200,000,000+ cars in the US since 1995. At $1,500 in depreciation per car per year that is $300,000,000,000 per year. Milton Friedman never said anything about that.

LOL

[psikeyhackr]

My point is that economists are not doing what you think.

Get an economics book and look up NET DOMESTIC PRODUCT. Look up their definition of DEPRECIATION.

They are ignoring the depreciation of Durable Consumer Goods, including automobiles.

Those nitwits have been running the planet on bad algebra for 60 years.

[picapauengracado]

I'm not sure what your point is, but I think cars like houses may actually be considered as part of a nation's capital stock and thus counted in that depreciation measure.

[willhunt205]

Wow ! Stephen Merchant's really a marginal thinker. :-p

[darkmannin]

Awesome intro for your book, sir. I'll be looking for it.

[simplicio87]

The book is very good. It talks about interesting and serious thing in a very casual easily understandable way. Politicans must read it:-).

[psikeyhackr]

{{ Did you have a bad experience with an automobile purchase? You realise that you can't blame economists for depreciation, right? }}

I know economists don't design the cars. They don't have the brains for that.

But they add the cars to GDP but don't subtract them from NDP. They treat cars like bananas. But the same applies to TVs and refrigerators. I just pick on cars because they are so expensive.

Economists can't do algebra.

NDP = GDP - Depreciation

Depreciation == Capital Goods ONLY

[psikeyhackr]

This is cool.

I get 3 thumbs down but no one claims that cars purchased by computers don't depreciate or say that economists compute and report that depreciation.

So economics depends on consumers being DUMBER than economists who are technological morons. They just need to keep people convinced that they know what they are talking about.

[lobomau08]

I'm still reading "The Undercover Economist".

When I bought it I didn't know if it was a "peach" or a "lemon".

It's a Peach, all right.