Economics in 60 Secs

A video short by Jack Alpert, Stanford Knowledge Integration Laboratory

For this and other videos in the order Jack would have them viewed, click for a list.

Transcript

0:07
Economics is the process for choosing behavior A over behavior B. Microeconomics makes the choices in costs and benefits as they accrue to an individual or an institution. Macroeconomics includes in the analysis, the costs and benefits that accrue from priming the pump, trade Management, Safety netting and investing in the public good. Ecological economics includes costs associated with natural services.

0:44
Biophysical economics includes the benefits of energy and mass deliveries Sustainability analysis includes all the variables that would maintain a space station over a long time period.

Transcript

1:02
The focus of these analyses change from local to Whole Earth, from instantaneous optimization of a subsystem, to long term viability of the whole system.

1:18
And maybe most importantly, from maximizing who gets benefits and when, to minimizing who gets injured and when

What Jack doesn’t mention is that conventional neoliberal/neoclassical economics (micro and macro) is a pretend science. Jack knows William Rees, Charlie Hall, and David Suzuki personally (Charlie’s notes are in the comments, so don’t miss them). I got the news in the 1970s, as best I can recall, from a letter to the editor in Scientific American explaining why conventional economics is not science. This was helpful, as such seemed obvious to me, but as I seemed to be the only one to think as much, I concluded I was just too stupid to understand economics. I’ve been to one Ecological Economic conference and three BioPhysical Economic conferences (BPE). BPE is easy to understand as it is a real science, just not taught in most universities full of pretend economists trafficking in the tea leaves of GDP who view energy and Nature as an externality.