Freakonomics

I read the book ,Freakonomics, today, and find something very interesting. Dr. Levitt, the author (Harvard undergrad, PhD from MIT) said "I don't know very much about the field of economics. I am not good at math. I am afraid of calculus. I don't know a lot of econometircs. I don't know how to do theory. I have little interest in the sort of monetary issued that come to mind when most people think about economics. If you ask me about whether the stock market's going to go up or down, if you ask me whether the economy's going to grow or shrink, if you ask me whether deflation is good or bad, if you ask me about taxes, it would be total fakery if I said I knew anything about any of those things".......... ha ha ha ....

On page 95, another funny story which I think is closely related to survey research I am doing now. A PhD student did the survey in a black and poor community in which gang members were invited to reply to the survey question, "how do you feel about being black and poor? " It turned out that the initial quesionnaire was not designed very well and thus seriously reduced the response rate. The initial quesionnare had only 5 multiple-choice answers from 1 through 5, vey good, bad, neither bad nor good, somewhat good, very good. The PhD student thought that the 6th choice needed to be added to the multiple-choice answers to fully include all the responses he got from those black and poor gang members, that is, fuck you....... ha ha ha

His findings make very good sense to me. It is very likely to get this kind of response when you ask a question that might be thought as stupid by respondents......

Human Nature

Adam Smith (1759) The Theory of Moral Sentiment suggested the innate honesty of mankind. "How selfish soever man may be supposed? There are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it".
Socrates argues that people are generally good even without enforcement.

I agree....... It is better to presume that human nature is good, rather than bad, otherwise it becomes very painful to live in this world, we have a right to choose ..... to choose to see people positively...... carefully chosen perceptions help cause positive changes in all aspects of human life ....

unemployment and inflation

The Fed need not worry that a falling US unemployment rate will quickly generate a rapid acceleration in US wage-driven inflation, as US labour's pricing power is diminished by competition from an augmented global labour supply. By Paul McCulley

Economists' blogs, more interesting than mine

To learn from others to improve my blog, I read others' blogs and found their blogs really look more interesting than mine. For example,
http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/
http://www.delong.typepad.com/
http://www.rgemonitor.com/blog/setser
http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/
Until now, my close friend, the one who recommended me to set up a blog, is the only one who post a five-letter comment, "hello", on my blog. Anyway, I still appreciate that.....