Friday, October 31, 2008

Paradoja del ahorro..!?

A proposito del ahorro en tiempos de crisis, jaja la premisa basica de este asunto paradojico (ver titulo de este "post"), es que una virtud individual, como puede ser el ahorrar, pudiera ser no una virtud comunal. Los que saben del asunto, presumen que si todos nos ponemos a ahorrar como rico mac pato, lo mas seguro es que los problemas arriben antes de que podamos ver ese cuarto de monedas...Se acuerdan!!?





?Como?... ?ahorrar es malo?...Pues si todos lo hacemos simultaneamente, en tiempos de crisis, al parecer la respuesta es: SI . Ahora el punto es que creen eso este pasando en el "gabo" ahora con la crisis. La gente esta ahorrando! un habito al parecer muy raro entre los americanos del norte.
En palabras de este chico, Krugman (que en Estocolmo dicen que sabe mucho):

"To appreciate the significance of these numbers (el ahorro de los gabos), you need to know that American consumers almost never cut spending. Consumer demand kept rising right through the 2001 recession.
So this looks like the beginning of a very big change in consumer behavior. And it couldn’t have come at a worse time."

El argumento de la paradoja, entonces, va en la direccion de que el ahorro masivo, en tiempo de crisis detiene el flujo de "billete" y esto genera que las empresas y los servicios se aletargen. Peor aun, los ingresos, debido a esto, podria bajar, y asi la cosa empeorar antes de mejorar!. A esta cosa le llaman "paradoja del ahorro".

La moraleja del asunto podria ser... seguir gastando en cosas que sean de verdadera, de verdadera necesidad!!?

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Road across some mathematics

Mathematics isn't just about answering questions; even more so, it is about asking the right questions, and that skill is a difficult one to reach. However I am working on a specific strategy: starting with small toy problems and investigate the nature of examples. As much as I can.

So, I will include such example here for sure. There will be a problem with the mathematical notation, but I'll see how I can work it out.

Here is an appetizer. Imagine a pendulum clock. The overall accuracy of such clock can be no better than the adjustment of the pendulum, which requires continual intervention. But for subsidiary timekeeping functions there is another kind of error one need to deal with. Even if the mean time is exact will the solar indicator keep pace correctly? The answer depends on how well celestial motions can be approximated by the arithmetic of the rational numbers. I mean, gear ratios. For example the day is 23 hours, 56minutes, 4.09053 second whereas the mean solar day is exactly 24 hours (by definition!). Therefore, question here is (not the only one of course) can we work this problem out with gear ratios really? well, It seems to me there are plenty of examples of this achievement (Strasburg great clock for instance). Moreover, if the rational numbers do the job most of the time, then where and how do the irrational number show up? I was wondering if this kind of numbers (they do exist right!?) was definitely one of the first steps of mathematical abstraction. Let me think about it.....Csar