Federal Reserve Chairman and a homeless guy

When Ben Bernanke succeeded Alan Greenspan as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, I could tell my professor was elated: he spent half of his introductory macroeconomics lecture talking about how he sent his buddy a congratulatory note upon receiving the news and how strongly he believed Mr. Bernanke was the best guy for the post. His elation was infectious. I leafed through my newly-purchased textbook which my professor and Mr. Bernanke co-authored, followed by a great sense of relevance which made me feel instantly privileged.

It was indeed a well-written textbook. but my lack of interest saw me almost flunk the final exam. The only thing I took away from a semester-long learning expereince was supply-demand equilibrium, which, according to my Engineering friend, translates into " stating the obvious."

Two years later, the sub-prime crisis broke out. No sooner had the market liquidity dried up than a deluge of rarely-heard/newly-invented terminologies began to inundate the press: TARP, mortgage buy-back, counter-party risk, liquidity trap, zombie banks, hyperinflation, too big to fail.... I felt like I sleep-walked through all my economic classes.

Last night, I picked up a local newspaper on my way home and came upon an inspiring tale: a Swedish homeless guy who wandered about the street collecting trash cans and consuming scraps died of a heart attack at age 60. Shortly after his death, his relatives discovered that he had a stock portfolio worth 1.1 million dollars. They also found in his "home" 150 bars of gold worth $450,000. A close friend of the homeless man told the reporter " He had lived a frugal life but he knew the stock market inside-out. He spent his days in the public library studying financial markets, he didn't buy newspapers because he could learn for free."

The moral of the two stories? University economics is, at best, misleading; at worst, a waste of time. If you are passionate, you will learn it yourself.
Happy Easter Holidays!