Macroeconomics 2 and Yasmin Ahmad

Project 365 #10: Monday, 23rd February 2009

Our visiting lecturer for Introduction to Financial Planning, Sam Tabit, for the next 3 days. It looks like he was posing for a pic but he really wasn’t – Kenneth was using my Canon IXUS 850 IS to snap this whilst I tried, albeit failingly, to obtain a good shot of Mr. Tabit earlier.

I found it hard to understand his Australian accent, coupled together with his constant audible breath on the mic, which was why I found his lecturers a tad bit dull. Sigh this isn’t helping at all if I were to go to Melbourne – which I hope I could quickly get accustomed to the Aussie accent, which meant that I need Aussie friends, which in turn could be difficult to find as Melbourne is a half-Asian city. -___-

Project 365 #11: Tuesday, 24th February 2009

Mun Wah, Rebecca, and me taking a quick nap during a break for our morning Macroeconomics 2 lecture. This wasn’t posed.

Had our ‘revenge’ on the photographer afterwards hahahaha.

As of late I found my Macroeconomics 2 to be extremely interesting as our lecturer constantly relates the theories we learn with real life economic scenarios, especially with the current worldwide recession. I thought this to be exceedingly effective as it keeps our interest going in something as dreary and theoretical as macroeconomics, especially when our lecturer would even take the latest news (from just the day before, for instance), to weave in into her explanation.

Cases in point (trust me when I say that as a layperson, you will want to read this to better understand the effectiveness of the policies from the government and Bank Negara):

1) Bank Negara has attempted to reduce the interest rates via the reduction of the BLR (Base Lending Rate) in order to spur consumption and investment by the private sector (namely the consumers and businesses), so of course, naturally you will wonder if this has actually worked?

The answer is a resounding no. Theoretically, to reduce interest rates would mean that monetary policy has been used, and fiscal policy – such as the mini Budget that our government is attempting – is more effective in a recession. Even without the theory, it is logical to see that when the private sector predicts that the economy would become even worse (how can they not think such a way, especially when the rest of the superpowers have hit a crisis said to be the worst since the The Great Depression in the 1930s?), they will be reluctant to spend, or even borrow money to spend or invest.

2) Based on the above point’s argument on the private sector’s poor expectations of the future, one minister’s suggestion on Monday to give a RM5,000 rebate to owners of vehicles above 15 years of age when they purchase a new car is foolish – people who actually own such vintage cars are retirees and senior citizens who would have to purchase a new car out of their own pension fund, the RM5,000 clearly would do nothing to help alleviate their burdens when they undertake such a purchase. Though the minister’s intention may be good to try and stimulate the auto industry – which in turn would sustain other related industries who supply parts to the auto industry – the fallacy in this has been clearly established: no retiree or senior citizen in their right mind would purchase a new car, not especially during a global recession such as now.

3) When the oil price went up, food prices, along with other goods’, went up as well. However, when the oil price went down drastically to the point that it was even lower than before the price rise, food prices do not go down as quick (and are unlikely to do so) which can be explained by one basic theory which I’m lazy to go into detail here: the sticky price theory.

..and many other even more technical analysis applicable to current situations. I’m always very happy to learn things that are actually useable in real life, even as many other events begin to unfold rapidly, which is why I don’t think I’d ever regret choosing to major under Economics & Finance, even though I may hate the idea of working in a banking sector. For the first time ever, I’m finding joy in studying economics.

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Tuesdays are incredibly tiring for me – classes are from 8am to 6pm, and it can only be tolerated with a circle of friends that I’m constantly hanging out with these days in college. Today, for lunch, we went to the market at SS15 (the first time for me) and I discovered cheap zhap fan that goes for only RM3 despite the large amount of dishes I took – Roy, Alfred, and Ho Sheng joined us, which meant that we have pretty good and hilarious conversation going around in the form of mock bickering between Rebecca and Roy & Kenneth.

Also bought an original textbook – International Microeconomics for the subject International Monetary Economics and my International Trade subject next semester which supposedly uses the same textbook, which would then be a good investment – for RM80 from some University Book Store dude who purchased it in bulk hence could sell to us at a discount. My first original textbook since my Foundation days.. and it’s even in hard cover too! Will definitely be taking care of this baby – in fact, I had to borrow some money from Rebecca as I didn’t have enough money with me.. and just yesterday I borrowed money from her too to pay off my RM5 lunch at Salmon Steak as I had zilch amount with me. <_<

On a general consensus during our IME class, we – me, Kiran, Rebecca, Kenneth – somewhat agreed that time has passed pretty damn fast this semester as compared to last semester. I also found out that Kiran was an ex-student of HELP (he transferred last semester) which he told us that Metropolitan is far better than his ex-college lol.

For some reason I slept quite a lot throughout the day but I still felt a little tired even when my final class (IFP) drew to a close.

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Jess rang me up nearly an hour ago (right after my phone conversation with Maxis with regards to preserving my mobile number), and she told me that she has just watched Yasmin Ahmad’s latest film Talentime (a special preview for USM students, nearly one month earlier before its actual release!) and urged me to watch it as I would like it.

..and. And. And. She got me Yasmin Ahmad’s autograph which was even addressed to me in my name!!! *clearly hyperventilating with excitement

I’m a huge fan of Yasmin Ahmad’s works and really admire her perseverance in producing such high quality unconventional films despite being confronted by the mob of closed-minded idiots populating this country. I’m a bit miffed that Muallaf would not be shown here (thank you, Censorship Board), but at least we have another excellent work which would be released here soon (as previewed and certified by Jess wtf).

Thank you Jess for going out of your way to ask her for an autograph for me and remembering me even though we’re several states away. =) I’ve been quite happy lately, and with all these happy news springing up on a weekly basis, I can only hope it’ll keep compounding for as long as possible.