I’ve been waiting for a news story to come along to give me the excuse to post my favorite economics photo of the year. Now that the year is over, I figure I’ll just post it.
This photo illustrates the two most important forces in my life.
Sarah Miller Photography Matilda Wolfers studying the market for milk.If you are thinking that only a true econo-geek would call supply and demand the two most important forces in his life, you’re partly right. I am an econo-geek. But more importantly, “supply” is actually my partner, coauthor and colleague, Betsey Stevenson, and “demand” is our newborn baby girl, Matilda Sloan Wolfers.
One of the most astute observations about “Mattie” came from Danny Kahneman. After a couple of long and pretty intense days talking about research (all with Matilda in tow), Danny observed that “Matilda has a very high tolerance for economics.” She does. Today we are packing for the American Economic Association annual conference in Atlanta — she’ll see you there — and by the time the gabfest concludes, she will have been to more economics conferences than I had been to by the end of graduate school.
Young Matilda celebrates her four-month birthday today, and she is very much responsible for ensuring that 2009 was a very special year for us. And all three of us wish you and your families the very best for 2010.
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Tip of Iceberg
Washington, D.C., Aug. 4, 2009 – The Securities and Exchange Commission today filed civil fraud and other charges against General Electric Company (GE), alleging that it misled investors by reporting materially false and misleading results in its financial statements.
The SEC alleges that GE used improper accounting methods to increase its reported earnings or revenues and avoid reporting negative financial results. GE has agreed to pay a $50 million penalty to settle the SEC’s charges.
“GE bent the accounting rules beyond the breaking point,” said Robert Khuzami, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “Overly aggressive accounting can distort a company’s true financial condition and mislead investors.”
There are four important forces in life. Strong force, weak force, electromagnetic force, and gravity.
Congratulations!! And a gift quotation if you haven’t already seen it, from a physicist:
I should like to suggest to you that the cause of all the economic troubles is that we have an economic system which tries to maintain an equality of value between two things, which it would be better to recognise from the beginning as of unequal value.
Paul Dirac
Too freaking cute.
Extreme case of microeconomics between monopoly and monopsony with an overbearing exogenous variable – dad.