What should everyone know about economics?
每個人都應該知道的一點經濟小常識
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Which websites or books do you suggest for someone dipping their toe into the subject?
I have studied economics in B-school and have built a few economic tools in my startup. Here are the top 10 things you need to know in economics:
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1.Economics has two main streams - Microeconomics and Macroeconomics. Micro deals with customer behavior, incentives, pricing, margins, etc. Macro deals with broad economies and larger things such as interest rates, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and other? stuff you see in the business column of a newspaper. Micro is more useful for the managers and macro is more used by investors. Except for points 2 & 3, I will cover macroeconomics in other points.
經濟有兩個主要部分，微觀經濟和宏觀經濟。微觀經濟是處理客戶行為，動機，價格，利潤等等。宏觀經濟是處理更寬泛的更大的事情，比如利率，國內生產總值，以及一些其他你可以從報紙經濟版上看到的東西。微觀經濟對管理者來說更加有用，宏觀經濟對投資者來說更加有用。除去2、3點，我將在其他部分講一講宏觀經濟。
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2.Law of Supply & Demand: This is the founding block of economics. Whenever supply of something increases its price decreases and whenever supply decreases price increases. Thus, when you have excess production of corn, food prices decrease and vice versa. Think of this intuitively. You will find its applications in 1000s of places.?
供應和需求的規律：這是經濟的基礎。當某個東西的供應量增加的時候，價格則會下降；當其供應下降時，價格則會上升。因此，當你有糧食產量富足時，食品價格則降低，反之亦然。這是顯而易見的。你將發現這在任何地方都是適用的。
3.Marginal Utility: Whenever you have more of something its use for you diminishes. Thus, a $100 would be more valuable when you earn $1000/month than when you earn $1 million/month. This is widely used in setting up prices.
邊緣效用：當你有很多事情，對你來說，他的作用正在減小。因此，比起你每月賺1百萬美元，你賺1000美元每月時的100美元也許會更有價值。這被廣泛應用于定價的時候。
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4.Gross Domestic Product (GDP): This is the fundamental measure of the size of an economy. This is conceptually equal to the sum of incomes of all people in the country or sum of the market value of all goods & services produced in that country. Right now US is the biggest economy in terms of GDP at around $14 trillion. That means, $14 trillion of value is produced in the US every year.
國內生產總值：這是衡量經濟的基本方法。從理論上來說，它等于國內所有人民收入總和或者是國內生產出的產品或服務的市場價值總和。現在，美國在GDP方面是經濟最強的，有14萬億美元。也就是說，每年美國會創造14萬億美元的價值。
5.Growth rate: The growth of an economy is commonly measured in terms of GDP growth rate. Since GDP is a measure of national income, this growth rate is a rough proxy for how an average person's income grows every year.
增長率：經濟的增長通常用GDP的增長速度來衡量。由于GDP是衡量國家收入的標準，它的增長速度可以粗略的用來代表每年人均收入增長的情況。
6.Inflation: You already know that the price of most products now are higher than in your grandfather's time. Inflation (measured in percent) is measure of how much a bunch of products have increased in price from last year. In mature economies, annual inflation is around 2% - that means on an average the prices of stuff goes up by 2% every year. The fundamental role of central banks is to manage this rate and keep it to a low positive number. Here are? the 100 year inflation numbers in the US.
通貨膨脹：你已經知道了現在大多數商品的價格已經高于了你父母的年代。通貨膨脹（用百分比來代表）衡量了商品相比去年價個增長了多少。在成熟的經濟中，每年的通貨膨脹率大約為2%，也就是說，平均價格的漲幅每年為2%。中央銀行的基本角色就是管理這個比例，并且維持它在一個較低的正數。 這里是過去100年美國通貨膨脹的數字。
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7.Interest Rates: When you loan money to somebody, you expect something extra in return. This excess is called the interest. Interest rate is a positive number that measures how much excess you will get. There are bunch of rates here. In the short term, this rate is usually set by the Central Banks. Right now it is close to zero. In the long term, this is set by the market and is dependent on inflation and the long term prospects of the economy. The mechanisms in which the central banks control the short term rates is called monetary policy.
利率：當你把錢借給別人時，當收回時，你會得到些額外的東西。這個額外的東西，就被叫做利息。利率是一個正數用來衡量你將多得多少。有很多的利率。從短期來看，這個利率通常是由中央銀行設定的。現在，這很接近與0.從長期來看，這是由市場決定的，并且受通貨膨脹和長期經濟預期的影響。中央銀行來控制短期利率的原理就叫貨幣政策。
8.Interest Rates vs. Inflation vs. growth: There exists almost an inverse relationship between interest rates & growth and interest rates also can affect inflation directly. Thus, when you increase interest rates inflation tend to come down, along with growth. One is good and other is bad. Thus, the constant tension on setting the interest rates. In the US, Federal Reserve sets the short term rates making it one of the most watched economic news.
利率VS通貨膨脹VS經濟增長：在利率和經濟增長中間存在了一種相反的關系。利率也可以直接的影響通貨膨脹。因此，當利率增加，通貨膨脹將下降，與經濟增長一致。一個好，另一就不好了。因此，常張力決定了利率。在美國，聯邦反設定了短期利率使之成為了最受關注的經濟新聞。
9.Fiscal Policy: Government can control the economy in a big way by adjusting its expenditure. The group of mechanisms using expenditure form the fiscal policy. When government spends more it can lead to more demand and that means more price increase. This means both high growth and high inflation. And it works in the reverse too. Thus, governments try to spend more during periods of low growth & low inflation and cut spending during periods of high growth & high inflation.
財政政策：政府可以通過調節他的開支來從大的方面上控制經濟。這一堆運用開支的機制就構成了財政政策。當政府花費更多，這將帶來更多的需求，也就意味著價格上漲了。這就是，高增長，高通脹。反過來也是一樣的。 因此，在低增長低通脹時期，政府會嘗試著花費更多；當高增長高通脹時，攔截一些花費。
10.Business cycle: Economies have their periods of booms and bust in cycles of approximately 7 years long. At the start of the cycle it is a boom, then it gets to the top, then there is a contraction leading to a recession (period of negative growth and/or increasing unemployment) and finally followed up with an expansion
商業周期：經濟有他自己的繁榮期和衰退期，在一個大約7年的周期中。周期的開始是繁榮，然后走向巔峰，然后會有一個收縮，引發衰退（負增長時期/失業率增加），最終開始膨脹。
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1、Opportunity Cost: When you do an activity, you tend to equate how good the activity is when compared to the alternatives. For instance, when you are working hard a Friday night on a project, you might be thinking "man, I should be doing something else." The alternative (in this case, partying with friends) has a high value, and thus your present project better be attractive. This value of the alternative is termed as an "opportunity cost" - value of what you give up. Thus, if you quit a $120K/year paying job to do a startup, your opportunity cost of doing startup is $120K/year. Your payoff should be higher than what you give up. Hat tip: Quora User
機會成本：當你做一件事情的時候，你會去與替代品對比，并權衡這件事有多好。比如說，當你周五晚上非常努力在做一個項目，你也許會想“小子，你應該去做點別的” 。這個替代品（在這個案例中，比如與朋友聚會）有很高的價值，與你現在的項目相比，更具有吸引力。這個替代品的價值就叫做“機會成本”——你放棄的價值。因此，如果你拒絕了一個12萬美元每年的工作而去重新開始，那么你重新開始的機會成本就是12萬美元每年。你的報酬應該比你放棄的價值高。
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2. Comparative Advantage:? You are running your tech startup and one day a client asks you whether you can build a website for them. Should you offer to build the website for them, or should you pass up the opportunity to a friend? How do you decide? A rational person might calculate how much time they will take to build the website, and whether they can use that time to earn more building their current startup product. Then, he/she might calculate whether the friend might be able to build the site more efficiently.
比較優勢：你正在進行科技創業，一天，你的客戶問你是否可以為他們建立一個網站。你應該為他們建立網站嗎？還是把這個機會交給其他的朋友？你要怎么決定？一般人會去計算建立這個網站要花費多少時間，并且如果他們利用這段時間建立現在的創業產品是不是可以賺的更多。然后他可能會計算是不是朋友可以更加有效率的建立這個網站。
If the friend can build it more efficiently and you have a lot in your plate, you will pass up the opportunity. This is called the theory of comparative advantage. Your friend has an advantage here and it makes no sense for you to take up that business. Nations, businesses and people should do only those things they are better at and leave the rest to others. Hat tip: Aaron Klemm
如果朋友可以更有效率的建立網站，并且你也分了一杯羹，你也許應該移交給你朋友。這就較多比較優勢理論。你的朋友是有優勢的，你沒必要去接手這個工作。國家、商業、人應該僅僅去做那些他們擅長的事情，并把其余的留給他人。
