BBQ Economics Quotes

“We've already seen how the amount of money in an economy will affect economic growth: more money means more growth, but can also lead to inflation if it's not backed by productivity gains and real wealth creation. The 'extra for experts' bit in this equation is the velocity of money... the V. That's the speed at which money circulates around the economy. In even more basic terms, it is how fast we're spending it.”
― Liam Dann, BBQ Economics: How money works and why it matters

“Deflation means the value of a dollar is rising too fast instead of failing. It effectively means the price of things is going down. Of course, the idea that failing prices are a bad thing seems counterintuitive. But the problem is that when people expect prices to fall, this can create a recessionary spiral.”
― Liam Dann, BBQ Economics: How money works and why it matters

“All things being equal, inflation could change the nominal price of things without changing their value much. So long as your wages were going up in sync with the cost of living, the numbers might get bigger, but you wouldn't get any more or less wealthy. Unfortunately, inflation is never quite so fair. It hits different parts of the economy differently at different times, often exaggerating inequalities and eroding trust in the monetary system, which tends to be based on the price stability of money.”
― Liam Dann, BBQ Economics: How money works and why it matters

“When it comes to rising shopping bills, inflation is the villain of the piece. Although, as we've seen with the myriad influences on pricing, inflation isn't really a price setter. It's a price changer. Inflation is more specifically an influence on the value of money. It steals value from you by diminishing the purchasing power of the cash in your hand.”
― Liam Dann, BBQ Economics: How money works and why it matters

“When economic growth slows, governments can legislate for higher minimum wages, or central banks cut interest rates to boost the amount of money in circulation, and, as we've covered earlier, these measures can inflate GDP growth. But inflation doesn't make anybody richer. We don't collectively get any wealthier in real terms unless we work harder or work smarter and produce more stuff.”
― Liam Dann, BBQ Economics: How money works and why it matters

“Understanding something like marginal utility is helpful when we try to build a more complex model of how an economy works. Without factoring it into the demand side of the equation, supply and demand curves will always be off-killer.”
― Liam Dann, BBQ Economics: How money works and why it matters

“Money is simply a device to measure the value of things. We can't eat it or shelter in it. It's not entertaining or delicious. If we print more, we haven't created any more wealth; we've merely diluted the value of the money. Hence inflation.”
― Liam Dann, BBQ Economics: How money works and why it matters

“Economies are the sum of our collective behaviour, and if we all start to believe a recession is coming, then there is a risk that we'll collectively adjust our behaviour. That adjustment can in itself be recessionary. If we spend too much time worrying about recession, they can become self-fulfilling prophecies. So, of course, like a lot of economics, how and when we start talking about recession is highly political.”
― Liam Dann, BBQ Economics: How money works and why it matters

“The great thing about economics is that everyone can have an opinion. There are plenty of facts. But it's a science that is never quite settled. Unlike hard sciences, which can run countless lab-controlled experiments, economics is mostly theory. We only get to observe economic experiments once, in real time, as our choices play out. We never get to see the counterfactual — the alternative outcomes that might have been possible with small tweaks or different policy approaches.”
― Liam Dann, BBQ Economics: How money works and why it matters

“We humans like a dichotomy; we're fans of a binary choice. It keeps things tidy. Deep down, we know the world is more complex. But it's much harder to visualize the three0dimensional matrix that truly incorporates all the choices and variables that shape our lives.”
― Liam Dann, BBQ Economics: How money works and why it matters

“We can't know all the possible outcomes with certainty, but at least we can work through all the possibilities to make informed decisions.”
― Liam Dann, BBQ Economics: How money works and why it matters

“In business and micro-economics, the opportunity cost of financial decisions is an even more pressing issue. Good decision-making around opportunity costs can even be make or break for a business.”
― Liam Dann, BBQ Economics: How money works and why it matters

“Assessing an opportunity cost involves looking into the future, which is always complex and imperfect.”
― Liam Dann, BBQ Economics: How money works and why it matters

“Scarcity of resources is what makes economics important. It's also what makes it controversial.”
― Liam Dann, BBQ Economics: How money works and why it matters