I need to pause for a moment to recall all the finer points of Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell. The book represents a turning point in my personal education on the economy, in that rather than focusing on key issues which explain in detail what and how an issue happened, but moving more into the core principles of our mixed capitalist and socialist culture.
Basic Economics actually doubles as a text book for certain college level classes, if only as a generally informing piece for certain political classwork. Unlike many of his works that I have read previously, Sowell decided to make more comparisons of America against the Soviet Union during the Cold War, which was fairly unique. In fact, comparing economics to history is probably one of Sowell’s greatest feats, as most economists tend to explain the formulas and theories before correlating them to history to make the circumstances of what and why obvious.
One of the tackled issues in Basic Economics was the presence of government involvement in the market. The government’s involvement takes several forms. Regulations, laws, taxes, commissions, so on and so on. The market frequently works around these issues, much like a river flowing around a stone in the middle of the stream. One of the biggest problems this causes is a political presence in the market means a reaction to political pressure. I’ll dive into this later.
Now after finishing this book, this post is a double whammy in that I finished a second book, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. In and of itself, Outliers has very little to do with the state of our economy, but certain elements of the book co-relate to arguments that may arise when viewing the most extreme examples of success in America. Chiefly, the rise of people such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and the systems and events that led to their success.
I have to note that two things disturb me about Outliers. The first is that the book is very short, it’s about 300 pages, but the font is large and the pages themselves small. The book was finished in about 24 hours, and that small amount of time that took concerns me with the possibility of a lack of more through research, and second that some of his points came across as so generalized that taking them at face value was somewhat difficult. For example, Gladwell examined the attitudes of lower and middle class parents treated their students over summer vacation. The book referenced some sampling of twelve families, and a skeptical part of my mind asked itself whether more depth and detail were necessary to give more credit to his theory. However, the belief that roughly 10,000 hours of practice and learning seemed sound in that it was a strong argument for the “practice makes perfect.”
Now for the bad news. While I haven’t given up my researching and learning on economics, I have to let it sit for a while. A few things have played a role in this. The first was Christmas and the holidays, on top of a recent move back in November. Well, we’re passed that now, but as of next month, I must have a new job lined up. I say this because the contract I am currently working is set to end very soon, and I have to line something up.
Yes, I will return to studying and posting. I’ve been thinking about doing something slightly different, basically reading The General Theory of Unemployment by John Maynard Keynes and writing each chapter in this blog in a “Cliff Notes” style research notes for later. This would make me write more often and really help other people understand what I’ve learned. This is because after looking over my previous notes, they’re nothing more than summaries with few details explaining the reasoning that needs to find its way into these posts. I’ll decide soon enough. Until then, adios 2009 and good luck to all in 2010!
























It’s been a long hiatus as I spent time preparing for the GMAT (the pre-business school test) and moving. But somehow I’ve found time to continue my studies into economics and history.


