Monday, January 12, 2009

Value and truth

Value has several senses (one example, of many), so we will need to talk about the different sorts as we look for lessons to be learned. For starters, consider the 'value' that the wags say ran from the market in 2008. Well, we'll need to look at that, in the context set by the money discussions. Perhaps, financial engineering will be seen to mostly generate more gas than solid (apologies to matter and to those who work with it).

Financial and economic value will take a lot of time to look at, just to understand the ponzi/made-off necessity. For a little different background material, see Vanity Fair (Wall Street Lays Another Egg by Niall Ferguson).

We need to look, too, at intrinsic value which will have even more connotations to worry about. Our task will be to keep things within the realm of the small 't' , not that large 'T' issues will not, from time to time, have some mention.

The use of 'instrinsic' even shows up in derivative modeling and other areas of economics. We'll look at that, to boot.

Remarks:

06/20/2009 -- Yes, rent can go to labor (new look at capitalism), and finance can have a higher calling.

01/18/2009 - We even need to look at why we need finance.

Modified: 06/20/2009

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