Economics for One

The Well of Infinite Depth

In high school calculus I remember learning about an equation for a 3-dimensional shape whose walls stretch to infinite, but whose volume is limited. Imagine that! It’s like a flower vase that stretches from the earth to the moon, and off to the stars, but which only holds a cup of water.

It’s really neat in theory.  But it doesn’t hold up in the real world.

A lot of economic theories are like that.  They assume that the financial world is infinitely deep, and that their actions are just a tiny part of that. And they may even work—so long as most people don’t use them. Read more…

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