Amphibious Economics

A Story Ripped Straight 

from the Headlines

We know more about baseball than practically anything else because folks have taken such care to curate a body of statistical knowledge over such a long time. There are myriad stats on the art of hitting, the craft of pitching, and the more nebulous fielding defensive stats. The world of Sabermetrics exists on a plane where Moneyball by Michael Lewis is probably a good primer for drafting a fantasy baseball league. It can give players a relative advantage over their fantasy opponents. Some people take that stuff very seriously.

Then there’s the real world. Whereas baseball is a game, the state of nature is the state of war. That’s Hobbes’ point, not mine. Dissecting specific information about the rules of the games we play and how they’re played is the key currency by which both baseball games and wars are won.

It’s interesting to note that the size of an American grenade was modeled to roughly the same size and weight of a baseball on purpose. The powers that be during the development of that weapon figured any man fit to serve in the armed forces should be able to throw a baseball. The weapon was retrofitted to match the familiar.

Misinformation and disinformation are so important because they represent the weaponization of the news. If minds and hearts are swayed by stories, then the free press functioning as the fourth pillar of our democracy must withstand the global war for your attention and interests.

Information sources should be vetted. Over time, news sources prove their story to be either newsworthy or biased in a known set of ways. They do this in part by labeling opinions as such and by using credentialed sources for their leads. Verification is paramount. Anybody can publish anything and put it on the internet. It doesn’t make it factually true or relevant for any argument that needs to be made.

This platform was established some time ago to begin documenting a series of concepts that allow anyone to access the knowledge base in the study of economics. But it did so with a twist on an old joke about a one-handed economist who always says, “on the other hand”. The flipside of the coin is that I like to mix metaphors, but the underlying dynamics of the games we play is that there is ultimately something at stake.

Throwing a baseball is the rite of passage that goes from father to son in most cases, but the innate interest in a baseball is shared by infants, dogs and to anyone who has the calling. Some work their whole lives to be good at throwing a baseball or hitting dingers, and they make a living out of it. Others enjoy it as a pastime.

Many are ambivalent or choose to categorize the idea that sporting events aren’t an accurate reflection of the larger games at-play. These are the kinds of things that get me thinking… I know I throw with one arm better than the other, but that doesn’t mean unilateral motion is good for the development of the human body. So the Ambidextrous Economist is going amphibious.

Ambidextrous Economics is going on a deep dive [sic] into a wealth of new topics, but we’re not going anywhere without the fundamentals. Somewhere along the way I got lost. and I think that began to become clear when I realized I didn’t want to do any charts. That time is finished.

My reasons for starting up this blog again are varied and complex. Ultimately, I feel compelled to dive back into the fold and begin unwrapping the black box. The goal is not to start slow or start from the beginning again. It’s simply to pick up where I left off. Planned obsolescence may have been an idea that gets people to consume, but sustainability is the notion that will allow the species to survive. And because I believe that is a worthy pursuit, I’m about to take some small steps into discovering what that might entail.

All of us are terminal cases. The digital footprints we leave may not change the world, but the avatar that I sacrificed for the love of science is back up and engaged in solving the mysteries that confound me: The rapidly deteriorating environment. The persistence of the human condition in the face of suffering. The conflict between nations. The belief that this is not just some cosmic joke, but that there is some meaning behind these events and the stories that bind them to our collective consciousness.

We tell stories for a reason: they keep us alive. It’s a way of passing down lessons we’ve learned. Ultimately I believe this is worthy of preserving.

So without further ado… Adieu, until next time.

☞ AE ☜ 3/23/2023