The Genius of Money: Part III - Interview Blog Post

An interview with Paul Mackay

In the interview with Paul Mackay, they discuss in detail about the perspectives on economics and money. This interview in particular stood out to me because it tied many economic theories together in real life situations. For example, Mackay describes how the approach to economic thinking in the past was producer oriented, but that it has transitioned to a more consumer oriented approach in the past century or so.

Apart from the analysis of economic theories, I found Mackay's description of investments interesting as well; He gave an interesting real-life example about how 'virtual value' is created and how it is detrimental to the economy. I enjoyed this part because it took another perspective of concepts we learn in Economics such as appreciation/depreciation and, in a very simplistic way, valuation. His description of "when value is not created out of human labour and human intelligence, then it is 'virtual value'... There is quite a lot of virtual value, for instance in the stock market. Prices go up and down, but the real value is not being expressed", presents a view that is often overlooked when analysing markets or goods but makes logical sense when given his examples.

The Genius of Money: Blog Post 2 - Chapter 10

Mercy in Mercantile Times

Gabriel Metsu: Usurer with a Tearful Woman

My key takeaway from this chapter is the portrayal of lending and money as necessary evils. At the time this painting was created, it was the beginning of major international trade between colonies which resulted in such a reliance on money; people gambled heavily on the growth of lending and borrowing to exploit the trading system and either amass great wealth, or total losses. Although doing so posed a great threat, it seemed to be one of the few ways for people to escape poverty during the day, hence explaining why people would take the risk. It's interesting to note how the painter portrays lenders to be evil and greedy, only caring about and profiting themselves at the expense of others; yet despite reasons for borrowing and lending being more diverse in todays society, people still take the gamble and the results can sometimes be the same as before, they can "make it or break it".

The Genius of Money: Blog Post 1 - Chapter 2

Coining a Myth

Titian: Danae and the Shower of Gold

My key takeaway from this chapter is how the two characters, namely Danae and the servant, react as polar opposites in response to a sudden abundance of wealth; Danae transforms it for the good, whilst the servant sweeps greedily to garner all that he can. Following this description, the author describes from personal experience how such reflections reside not only in him, but all of us as well. I agree with this because for the most part because I can see the conflict of such traits in most, if not all, of us. Knowing the struggle of finding a good-paying job to succeed in todays society, the greed and competitiveness in me to make the most money are stronger than ever before. On the other hand, there's also part of me that, given the luxury of an abundance of wealth, would like to give back to people more in need than I am. However, it's also important to note that with such a competitive market in todays economy we often hear the term "survival of the fittest"; as society becomes more and more demanding, we are sometimes forced to ignore the good and instead garner the greed to succeed.

Anything Blog Post 1

Competitive Swimming; the sport I know and love

Swimming is a low impact sport that is widely regarded as relaxing and healthy. But competitive swimming pushes those boundaries a bit, with the aim of breaking personal and game records in attempts to out-swim the opposition in separate stroke categories (namely Freestyle, Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke and Individual Medley). Like most of my friends and family, I never thought much of it apart from its health benefits; how wrong I turned out to be.

Competitive swimming has been a huge part of my life; since a young age and prior to college, I've spent about twenty hours a week in the pool. Although swimming is widely regarded by my peers as a solitary, repetitive and boring sport, and despite it taking a lot from me, (seeing my team more than my brother and my coach more than my parents), I've stuck with it regardless. From celebrating the triumphs to persevering through the failures, my team has played an integral role in my development and love for the sport. My team has been both my partners and my competitors, but through it all we've stuck together as a family.

As like any other sport, swimming has taught me so much more than merely staying fit. To begin with, I've learnt the importance of discipline and diligence in excelling at anything, not just a sport. With a relatively small build, I often lacked the confidence to perform my best, but I now know that what I lack in physical strength, I can compensate with mental resilience. Arguably the greatest aspect of competing in swimming (or any sport) is that I've learnt to respect the uniqueness of everyone in any community; I believe that we all benefit from each others' experiences. Whether it's the life lessons that it has taught me, or the feeling of freedom in the sequestered waters of an early morning pool, swimming has become part of my life that I will cherish and grow from.

Omnivore's Dilemma: Food Post 3

Omnivore's Dilemma: Food Blog 3

Transitioning from the natural corn to processed foods, the second part of chapter 5 in Omnivore's Dilemma describes how "people began processing food to keep nature from taking it back." This stood out to me because I never thought of nature taking food back, but simply took an 'expiration date' as the point after which a food begins to lose its taste and thus appeal or value. Reading Pollan's description made me think twice about how food 'expires'; After a long enough period of time where food is not consumed it decomposes, and in its natural environment is then reabsorbed by the earth as nutrients for soil. It makes sense that nature is, in a way, as if taking the food back and completing the cycle of life without putting anything to waste.

Pollan then goes on to describe how the term "food security" has changed as humans have evolved. Even today, when I think of the term "food security", I immediately picture a system of security or barriers to entry that protect crops from animals or hazards; this was in fact the meaning many years ago. However, today the term has adapted to how we view food in the modern day. As more and more foods are becoming processed and stray further away from the once natural product, what's important today is not necessarily the simple ingredient, but the recipe of combined ingredients. In that sense, the modern definition of "food security" is related to the protection of recipes instead of the actual product. In some bizarre way, "Recipes are not intellectual property; you can't patent a new cereal", therefore making them more valuable in a business sense today than the relatively low-cost ingredients that contribute to a processed food.

Looking back at these two aspects makes me think long and hard once again about the basics of human life. As humans we've evolved so much and adapted to maximise (most of the time at least) our use of resources. Yet despite the wonder of evolution, it makes me question whether 'artificial' is a term used just for foods, or for more aspects of life as well.