Nice People Thread No. 14, all Nice and Proper

Generali

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

I am toying with the idea of sending Mrs McT to the shop for bacon.

I did have bacon in the fridge last night, along with some rather tasty bottles of Cairngorm beer, however one thing led to another and now I am baconless, beerless, and mildly hungover.

Also in an act of exceptionally poor planning I did a slightly inebriated online Tesco shop last night that included bacon but scheduled the delivery for this evening instead of around now.

D'oh....

Chez Generali:

Bacon? Check
Eggs? Check
Bread? Check
Beans? Check
Sausages/black pudding/kidneys? Nope but never mind, we have the essentials.

Nice bottle of red? Check (but unlikely to be around in the morning).

zagubov

I'm always alarmed at how absorbed and defensive economists become about their theories. I'm not claiming it's just a lump of arbitrary nonsense like astrology, but as soon as people saying "look, it's just simple mathematics.." I get a bit wary of it. In philosophy people used to discuss "physics envy".

Mitchell and Webb had an amusing sketch which comes to mind whenever I hear economists or their apologists rambling on about their obvious timeless eternal truths.
Just insert the word "austerity" or "privatisation" or even "socialism" or "capitalism" instead of the word beginning with v. (SFW)

Generali

PasturesNew wrote: »

If it were your own house you could wire it all up to be operated online.... then check up on them and turn stuff off while you're on the bus even

Our telly (that dad made) was in a metal cabinet with a drop down front at the bottom that contained all the controls. When dad decided it was bed time he'd turn the telly off, then lock up that section and take the key to bed with him.

I've long liked the idea of having a big red button by the front door. Instead of going round the house turning off this and that you press the button and it turns off the air con, the lights, the TVs, the computer(s) and so on but leaves the washing machine, freezer set top box etc on.

Generali

zagubov wrote: »

I'm always alarmed at how absorbed and defensive economists become about their theories. I'm not claiming it's just a lump of arbitrary nonsense like astrology, but as soon as people saying "look, it's just simple mathematics.." I get a bit wary of it. In philosophy people used to discuss "physics envy".

Mitchell and Webb had an amusing sketch which comes to mind whenever I hear economists or their apologists rambling on about their obvious timeless eternal truths.
Just insert the word "austerity" or "privatisation" or even "socialism" or "capitalism" instead of the word beginning with v. (SFW)

I see economics as being rather like the natural sciences in the Mesopotamian world: it's new and exciting but mostly wrong.

I think the choices we have with economics are to reject it as rubbish or to accept that it has flaws but there are a lot of very bright people trying to improve it.

The recent discoveries in behavioural economics are very encouraging to me. I think that is a rabbit hole that economics is going down that has the potential to revolutionise the subject. Perhaps Dan Airley or his successors will be the Aristotle of economics. Maybe he'll be shown to be the Aris of economics!

The subject moves ahead and, as an economist, I'm yet to be convinced that there is a better way to share scarce resources other than the price system. I don't think there is a serious case to be made for any other way of dealing with scarcity than pricing. If you, or anyone else for that matter, has one I'd be happy to hear their theory and in particular the empirical evidence they have to support their case.

michaels

I think game theory starts to address one of the big problems with economics - if anyone 'understands it' to the point of making accurate predictions then people will change their behaviour to benefit from the predictions...and hence the world will change from what was modelled 'correctly'.

Generali

michaels wrote: »

I think game theory starts to address one of the big problems with economics - if anyone 'understands it' to the point of making accurate predictions then people will change their behaviour to benefit from the predictions...and hence the world will change from what was modelled 'correctly'.

You are Douglas Adams and I claim my five bob.

More seriously I think there are two things:

1. Economics being used to describe and explain what is happening.
2. Economics being used to describe and explain will is happen.

My opinion is that economics is quite good, although not good enough, at no. 1: incomes are rising currently due to skill shortages; house prices are low up north because it's so, so grim etc.

Economics is rubbish at no. 2. Terrible at it. However, people seem to think that by putting economists to task at something they are demonstrably appalling at they might make people rich and so will pay loads of money in the hope of getting rich.

If someone said that they'd pay me £300k/year for tipping rugby league results I would definitely take their money. I have no clue about league but I see no good reason why that should disqualify me from getting rich.

GDB2222

Generali wrote: »

You are Douglas Adams and I claim my five bob.

More seriously I think there are two things:

1. Economics being used to describe and explain what is happening.
2. Economics being used to describe and explain will is happen.

My opinion is that economics is quite good, although not good enough, at no. 1: incomes are rising currently due to skill shortages; house prices are low up north because it's so, so grim etc.

Economics is rubbish at no. 2. Terrible at it. However, people seem to think that by putting economists to task at something they are demonstrably appalling at they might make people rich and so will pay loads of money in the hope of getting rich.

If someone said that they'd pay me £300k/year for tipping rugby league results I would definitely take their money. I have no clue about league but I see no good reason why that should disqualify me from getting rich.

Black and Scholes made their employers gigabucks, despite not being able to predict the future, or even trying to.

mystic_trev

Good afternoon, or not such a good afternoon NP's, as the weather sh!te here!

Knowing there's a number of 'Foodies' on this thread, I've a question to ask about Pork pies, as I'm rather fond of them, in moderation

I always bought Melton Mowbray, as I always thought they were the best? It would appear not! I've tried all the major Supermarkets, and they've all disappointed. Crust not crusty, not enough aspic between crust and pie, and substandard contents of pies. I swear they must all be coming from the same Producer, as there's nothing to tell between them, even the Waitress one was just as bad!

So, please tell me, where can I find a decent Pork Pie

zagubov

PasturesNew wrote: »

My heart's racing, I'm breathless ...... turned the heating on 5 minutes ago and changed telly channels. Come Dine with Me.

Daft mare's smoke detector won't off on the telly and I thought it was mine, so leapt off the sofa in a panic!



Heart'll be racing for ages now and it'll take me another hour or two to "settle down" again....

I've always thought they'd be better off manipulating the pitch of alarm bells in dramas so we'd recognise it wasn't the real thing.

CKhalvashi

Hello from Bulgaria, guys!