Economics for the Intelligent Amateur

In the wake of the recent controversy surrounding Free Markets, and more specifically, the “How could we be so stupid as to believe markets could work?” statements, we feel it is time to clear the air and make a couple blanket statements:
Efficient Markets does Not mean continuous growth
It is excusable in a way. We [...]

We have all heard of Joseph Stiglitz; the Nobel prize winning economist who releases books every now and then. You may also be familiar with his belief in more regulation for the economy and his criticism of President Obama’s rescue plan for the financial industry, famously remarking that whoever came up with it is [...]

No, not of the Groceries variety, but of the mask and cape variety. More specifically: beating evil dictators at their own game.
Those of you who read The Economist or follow our Tweets (conveniently accessible here: @Dumbagent) may have seen how Kim Jong-il was finally forced into an apology thanks to economics.
It seems [...]

Along the same vein of our last article on this subject, we continue to find amusing investment tips in Kiplinger’s:
Page 31 of their February 2010 edition is called:
Make a Buck off a Sagging Dollar – by Andrew Tanzer
This articles states how, since the US Dollar is falling, what alternatives an investor should find in order [...]

As long time proponents of market efficiency, we are still amused by the investment methods that keep getting regurgitated. They tend to fall under two main camps: The Charting methods, that analyze past performance and try to find trends, and the Fundamentals method, which analyzes various companies and determines which is undervalued. Of [...]