Monday, May 23, 2005

How to tell if you are an economist...

I have been putting a lot of thought of this - personal and participant observation reveals the following worrying signs of being an economist:
  • You have had several pens in your shirt pocket for several hours, and have even gone to a meeting with them in. You have only just noticed this in the mirror in the bogs.
  • You can't find a good quality retractable pencil these days...
  • You start to think that the magazine "The Economist" is far too journalistic and strays away from the facts way too much.
  • You start reading economics books, no matter how interesting and easy going, at bedtime.
  • You know more about the methods of economic forecasting than the mouthpiece the consultants have put on stage for the presentation... you smile wanly to yourself that you can see through their bullshit
  • You have heard of "Richard Florida" but you absolutely regret having ever heard of him!
  • Other colleagues in your workplace cite Richard Florida. You feel like shooting them.
  • You roll your eyes when you see the case study for a successful comparator economic region is... Baden Wurttemburg/Emilia Romagna/Baltimore...
  • You research mortgage rates in depth and design a spreadsheet on which to calculate various things. You try and recreate the payment streams and how they calculate APR. You build in scenarios of where interest rates may be going! this takes days and days and weeks. The wife is annoyed you haven't even got round to applying for a mortgage yet.
  • You lose your temper that the figures in the report you are reading are 'unrounded'! a sign of a lack of professionalism...!
  • You schedule a Christmas Day's dinner and guests using a spreadsheet!

1 Comments:

At 1:42 pm, Blogger James said...

nicely put. Hopefully your covert blogging identity has not yet been uncovered by your employer!

 

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