January 2009

Crying unabashedly during Disney movies

January 30, 2009

You know how people say, “Well, I really feel old because…” and then it’s usually because they walked to school two miles in the snow with no legs and a harried Vietnamese sniper nudging them along with the tip of his bayonet the whole way? Well, I feel old because I just realized that Beauty and the Beast, one of my FAVORITE Disney movies of all time, will be turning 20 years old in 2011.  That’s unbelievable, because I just ...

4 comments

Making sense of econbabble: Real vs. nominal values

January 29, 2009

(source: Cincinnati Enquirer) I recently had a client ask me for the difference between real and nominal prices in some data they were looking at. As an economist, this was one of the easiest questions I dealt with: real and nominal prices are one of the handful of pliers and wrenches in the Economic Vocabulary Toolbox that we deal with. However, I remember when I first started taking economics classes, at the crack of dawn (10:00 AM in college time), ...

1 comment

Changing My Last Name: Or, how I totally screwed over feminism

January 27, 2009

When I got married this past October, I remember the happy times: I also remember the not-so-happy times: changing my last name (did I mention, by the way, that I HATE being called Mrs.?) I had this debate in my head for a long time, ever since we got engaged.  Do I change my last name and achieve family unity with my husband, making everything from insurance to office parties easier?  Or do I keep my last name and remain ...

16 comments

Helpful Economics Forum

January 26, 2009

Often when I was an undergrad majoring in economics, and even now, using living, breathing economics as a career, I would often have many questions that the people around me, especially busy professors, sometimes couldn’t answer.  That’s why I think it’s so great that I came across this site.  If you are either student or working with econometrics, please contribute to this community and help it grow. This one looks particularly interesting for me, but  I highly urge you to ...

2 comments

Predictions on the Economy from a Dismal Scientist

January 25, 2009

Since most everyone in my extended family knows that I am an economist, I get frequently asked when the recession will end, as if I am Frodo holding the ring to throw into Mount Doom, where Mount Doom is really a combination of Freddie Mae, Citiman Brothers, and Goldman Ford. So, here goes: The economy will hit the bottom in the third quarter of 2009 and start slightly trending upward in the fourth quarter. What does this mean, and how ...

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