[ExI] Inflation graph

[Kelly Anderson]

On Sat, Nov 30, 2013 at 4:51 AM, Anders Sandberg <anders at aleph.se> wrote:

> On 2013-11-30 11:30, BillK wrote:
>
>>
>>>  I doubt if you can call that a prediction. (Agreeing with John).
>>
>> It is a naive observation that if the price is cheaper people can
>> afford to buy more.
>> The original claim is that *all things being held equal*, lower price
>> equals more sales.
>> But there are so many exceptions, that it cannot be a prediction. In
>> real life all things are never held equal.
>>
>
> Physics is clearly just as crappy. That "law of gravity" clearly has loads
> of exceptions - balloons, birds, clouds. Clearly it cannot make good
> predictions with all those exceptions of buoyancy, drag, the Yarkovsky
> effect and whatnot. And they change it all the time with relativistic
> corrections. Clearly no real life applications. Don't get me started on the
> "science" of biology.
>
> If you really think economics doesn't know anything useful, you should be
> able to make money as well as - or better - than people with economic
> knowledge without having had to pay for all that education. Raise prices,
> value risk at zero, and trade with people with more information than you
> have: you are going to be rich!
>
> (I was thinking of mentioning Giffen goods and similar complications in my
> quick post, but felt that it would detract from the point. "Prediction" is
> a loaded word in the philosophy of science, and comes in many kinds and
> qualities. But supply-demand is a rather solid prediction approach.)
>

I find it interesting that at the end of nearly every story on Bitcoin I've
seen in the media, one reporter says at the end "I think I'll stick with
dollars and I think everyone else should too" to which the other reporter
replies, "Sounds like a good idea Jim."

Perhaps they aren't economists... LOL

-Kelly
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