Consumer spending picks up, but savings a worry

[Tchocky]

Originally Posted by Skybird

BS. Economics is not difficult, and they are not a science (I do not understand what place economics have at universities). Difficult it becomes only in attempting to hide unwanted truths and deceive the wide public over the disaster unfolding. The cheating and lying - that is what adds complexity to it that now is so voluminous that it cannot be controlled and overwatched anymore.

Economics is difficult. It's a complex discipline that is more properly defined as a social science. It is a science in that the methods of analysis and modelling are rigorous and well-defined. It is a social science because the test cases and "laboratory" are from the real world - there is no opportunity for truly falsifiable "2+2=4" analysis. The end result of teaching economics is not so much a defined set of rules, formulae and theoretics, but more a way of looking at problems, a mental method.

What you're saying is that economics would be simple and easy if it weren't for all the conspiracies and lying. That's not the case.

Things would not be simpler and easier if we went back to the gold standard either. Nothing is stopping you right now from protecting yourself from inflation by exchanging cash for gold (or whatever you like). What won't protect you from inflation is having the government decide that the value of your euro is now linked to the value or quantity of gold it holds. ALl you're doing there is randomising the extent and volatility of inflation. Currencies rise and fall on the sound basis of demand for that currency. Finding a mother lode of gold under your country shouldn't affect the economy in any way except for the benefits from extracting and selling that gold.