Dear Economists

Somehow we believe that economists have extraordinary skills in explaining economic and social events and phenomena. The weekly 'Dear economist' column in the FT weekend illustrates that people prefer explanations based on economic reasoning over common sense with regard to almost every possible matter. As a devouted reader every weekend I learn that many people think economics will help them making a decision on their eating habits, future career path and love life. But why should some asymmetric information argument or some principle-agent model be more suitable to give advise than logical reasoning and donw-to-earth common sense (which you can find in my favourite FT weekend column 'Mrs Monepenny')?

Let's be honest. You don't need to be a genius to answer the question whether Chris should marry his depressed girlfriend. No! Under no circumstances! No! It is commonly known that an economist won't give you an unambigious answer to such a question and if you ask two of them you will receive three possible options what to do. Well, Chris's girlfriend is 'beautiful, intelligent and loving, a wonderful person in every respect'. So maybe a straight forward question is indeed not readily available.

The point of this blog is to bring logical reasoning and pragmatism back into economic reasoning and observations. Hence, the economist meets Mrs. Moneypenny. Since economists like to add their five cents to pretty much everything, all matters of popular interest will be discussed! If this can attract just one devouted reader, it's a success.