Law and Economics

In addition to this being my first year of law school it's also been the year of economic insanity, which is pretty clear. No conclusions yet, of course, about what it all means, both for us future lawyers and for us human beings, but it's certainly intriguing (or nervewracking, I suppose).

My father always wanted me to study economics in college ("Just one course!") and while I haven't gone though life wishing I had taken it, it has been a little bit shocking to realize recently this year how little I actually do know. Forget TARP or mortgage-backed securities; I doubt I could even handle a balance sheet or a stock portfolio.

So in classic auto-didact fashion I've been relying on Paul Krugman and Planet Money all year to teach me what I don't know. Now I have a pretty good idea what a toxic asset is (and why they're bad), what the hell securitization means, and why nationalization is the best thing ever (I'm sorry, is my socialism coming out again?).

It's a little bit sad that economics isn't required to graduate from secondary school - maybe it should be, to fit in with the U.S. and European history that most of us take as teenagers. At the very least we might have better credit scores, no?