Organizations and Markets

Things That Make You Go Hmmm . . . .

20 November 2007 at 5:51 pm stevphel Leave a comment

| Steve Phelan |

I had an interesting encounter with two economists in my college last week. The first was during a presentation I was giving to the MBA Association on buying opportunities in Las Vegas following the subprime debacle. I assured the audience that buying opportunities existed but you needed to to be very knowledgeable about the area of town in which you intended to buy. The professor of economics who preceded me in the presentation immediately retorted, “if so many opportunities exist then why isn’t everybody buying?”

The second encounter occurred over a cup of coffee, when another economist from the same department confided that he had bought his house two years ago at the top of the market — something he now regrets because prices have fallen greatly since then.

Is it just me who finds it strange that 1) a professor of economics does not understand the market process and 2) a (learned) economist would be buying at the top of (what was to me) an obvious bubble?

Entry filed under: Austrian Economics, Education, Former Guest Bloggers.