Two of the 3 big courses I’m taking this semester are on Economic Development. One is just titled “economic development”. That one has been tremendously educational on a topic I’ve been thinking about for quite some time. Both times that I applied to Berkeley, I wrote on the essay topic relating to removing capital gains taxes, as an “economic stimulus”. I even presented it once to my political economy class, with
I was baffled, grinned, shrugged, and professed ignorance. Professor Fong fielded the question and sorta took over in what turned into a group discussion on a topic unrelated that course, but which seems to be a major topic in this this course. What is the role of the interest rate in inflation. How do we control the value (and exchange rate) of currency? What is inflation? What are the consequences of overvaluing currency? How does it happen? Who benefits and who takes it on the chin? Ditto for undervaluing currency. What is the interaction between the stock of money, the rate of financial transfer, the production of things of value, and prices of those produced goods? What does changing one of those do to the others? What does this tell us about inflation?
It’s crazy stuff. I feel like an ignorant child watching him bat concepts back and forth with some of the other students in the class. Then there’s the occasional one I catch and toss to him. Very educational. I have to admit his sink or swim flatout lecture style is less than enchanting, but he’s teaching such fascinating stuff that he clearly knows like the back of his hand that I’m still enjoying the class … somewhat.
I’m feeling like I should write letters to my former profs (particularly Prof Fong from cmu and Prof Quigley from Berkeley), telling them about my current educational exploits, and thanking them for what they taught me as well as their letters of recommendation. Then I might have to write “thank you”s to Tom and Ro as well 😉