From Cambridge to Eternity: “Variation vs Change 02”

 

Imagine, as opposed to realizing, the time arrives in the widget market of Mini-polis in the beginning of May 2036. As usual in the market, the “unit of account” is the thaler; the medium of exchange is thaler bills, solid or “thin-airy” but never fluid.

             We knew as of yesterday: Demand in April was p= -2q+47 (in thalers) and supply p=1 q+ 2 (in thalers); Quantity traded q=15 units of “real” widget and the “equilibrium price” p= 17 bills of the “nominal” thaler. Fractions of widget, if any, were all gone  irrelevant.

 

Looking ahead through the accounting month of May, we expect that the demand for widget will sky-rocket due to “Extraordinary Popular Delusions” so as approximately to appear like p= -2∙q+347 (in thalers), ceteris paribus.

Over-time Change. Laissez faire, the equilibrium as to be accounted for on May 31st will be at 115 units and 117thalers. Realistic? Yes, the history has shown “The Madness of the Crowd”’ every once in a blue moon.  

             No matter what, the majority of macroeconomists would not care about such a “micro-foundation” of widget market as the peanut of peanuts in the macro-economy. As per the books of “financial” accounting at any rate, the “real quantity” traded will have grown by 800% per mensis, or 9,000% per annum. That’s the change over time. Oh, intertemporal!

 

Scenario B. As usual in life, there are Drs. Dooms and paranoids: “Market turmoil is highly contagious. We’ve got to do something about it.” How to prevent the overheating in the widget market? Oh, that’s the peanut of peanuts. Let’s go fiscal! Just levy a specific duty of 300 thalers.

            We’ll see: Quantity traded q=15 units and the “equilibrium price” p= 317 thalers. Now, all set! The market has successfully been “stabilized” to the “natural level of equilibrium.” After all, quantities are “real” while prices and values are “nominal” or trivial.

Cross-Sectional Variation. There is an imaginary gap of 100 units in “real quantities” between Scenario A (Laissez faire) and Scenario B (“Going fiscal”). Mission of cooling the market accomplished. That’s the variation across the space between scenarios. Oh, interspatial!

 

Exogenous Variable.” By definition, a parameter represents the cross-sectional variation. In mathematics of imagination, the section can be continuous, but must be discrete in the practice of reality. Practically referring to the actuality, discrete scenarios are to the organism what discrete sections are to the thing “in equilibrium.”

             It would not only be out-shockingly slippery but also strangely vibratory when crossing over scenarios for the sake of: say, deriving the AD curve (P vs Y) via varying the “exogenous variable” P in the IS-LM model (r vs Y). Watch Your Steps!


Oh! Carol, I’m But

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