Patrick's Day - 1/6/2016

The markets kept going down because of circuit breaker in Chinese Markets two days in row. I don't know if Chinese want to show their economics powers or they need me to be their President. I read some comments on WeChat my college buddies posted but didn't join their conversations. Chinese markets are not relevant to me anyway. I am just waiting for the settlement of my property in Cuigezhuang, Beijing I purchased in early 90s they initially owed me two millions bucks and are owing me more than half a million. Though my dad reached that agreement with them one year and a half ago, they have never fulfilled the obligations. 

Seahawks' fans are shooting for a win at Vikings. It sounds like it will be cold in Minnesota. However, there will be traveling fans there to root for the team. 

I finished reading of Chapter 1 - What Models Do of Economics Rules. In addition to three models widely applied globally, the author illustrates his opinions on Models:

• Economic Models can be real experiments both in a social lab and real world; They also can be thought experiments. Both exercises need extrapolation before they can be applied;
• Unrealistic Assumptions distort the outcome of the models no matter how accurate are the model designed;
• Math on Economics Models are relatively simple compared to physical scientific models, rudiments of multivariate calculus is generally sufficient; Though nonmathematical models become more popular, the author sounds preferring mathematical models because it is easier to explain and for audiences to understand a economic theory or concept. I concur;
• Today's computing technologies make large-scale computation possible at much less cost; Arrival of Big Data also drives the outcome of economics models more relevant; However, Large-Scale models become less relevant in having specific issues resolved. Specific models are more efficient. In this regard, economists should prefer simplicity to complexity, though the world is complex. To my understanding, this doesn't mean the smaller scale models are simple, they may still include many variables.