I Can't Count! Confesses Boe Economist

[Peter Pedant]

yes boys and girls he thinks: 1+ 1 = 3
No wonder we are in the crap

I wish I had A level Maff says Banks top economist
Times today
Nicla Woolcock: The Bank of Englands chief economist has admitted that he has struggled at times with his career because he did not take Maff A level. Andy Haldane who has recorded a speech ....

says really it could have been better
[by golly he can say that again]
the admits that he often wondered if one plus one was fwee - a very large number

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-8314897/Bank-England-chief-economist-reveals-struggled-times-not-taking-maths-level.html

if you have wondered why we are in the economic crap
well wonder no more

er OK a question - what do ABers think ?

[Peter Pedant]

times Sat
or should I write - Taymz ?

letter - it is called econometrics apparently and all the innumerate economicsts slig it off and ignore it
with well turned phrases - "it never did narfin!"
" No one at the Bank finks it duz anyfing!"

and then get on with running the country , with the skills they honed in Ancient History and Country Dancing courses

[pixie374]

Tbf ,I did maths and economics A Level. Maths turned out to be more of an Art than a science, no use whatsoever.

[Peter Pedant]

blimey I use mine every day
starting with counting up at the grocer's ( see above )

[pixie374]

That's just GCSE and AS level though. Any higher, and it just seems irrelevant. I remember telling my maths teacher that.

[jim360]

Guess you never saw Maths as it can be. A Level Maths is a poor advert for the subject in several ways, frankly.

[pixie374]

Possibly. I loved it until A Level, and then it was pointless.

[jim360]

Depends as well I suppose on what you are wanting to get out of it.

[pixie374]

Realism, rather than theory I guess. I thought it would be more practical and useful.

[Prudie]

I don't think you need to be good at sums or maths to be a good financier or banker or economist. They do absolutely everything, even write letters, in Excel anyway.

[jim360]

Ah, but in that case the problem is that they show you some of the stuff you'll need for practical uses but never get around to explaining why. I remember being frustrated about it as well, at the time. Takes a University course to fully appreciate why A Level Maths is useful and practical.

[jim360]

You can only use Excel properly if you know the maths it's doing for you though.

[Cloverjo]

I’ve seen brilliant mathematicians reach for their calculators to work out a simple sum.

My stats teacher once had to work out 27x3 or something and did the working out on the board while we students looked at each other in surprise.

[pixie374]

I had considered it, Jim. But ended up with economics. I just couldn't and still can't see the purpose of sin, cos, etc. I got an A, but it felt like a pointless waste of time x

[jim360]

Good luck modelling cyclical trends in economics without sine and cosine :P

[pixie374]

Lol....probably won't be necessary for me. But thanks x

[jackthehat]

I studied Pure and Applied Maths at A Level.
I enjoyed Applied but I'm afraid Pure Maths became foggier and foggier as time went on.

I used to use Maths far more in my professional life but, as Prudie says, nowadays there is generally an App for whatever I want. I can get the computer to work out what I need and so a great deal of my learning has simply dropped out of my head.

[pixie374]

I did pure and applied as well. I don't think any of it had a practical use. I had expected it to be a more difficult version of GCSE.

[jim360]

As I say, it comes later. But on the other hand, why does a thing have to have a practical use to be interesting?

[jackthehat]

I must admit that I never understood (at O level) quite why we had to give sooooo much time over to calculating the area under a curve.

It appeared to have limited practical use in the outside world.... LoL

[pixie374]

Because I am slightly autistic, Jim. So I don't relate to anything that isn't real.