Mises Wire

The Non-Econometrician’s Lament

The Non-Econometrician’s Lament

I just found this, and it’s marvelous!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

As soon as I could safely toddle

My parents handed me a Model;

My brisk and energetic pater

Provided the accelerator.

My mother, with her kindly gumption,

The function guiding my consumption;

And every week I had from her

A lovely new parameter,

With lots of little leads and lags

In pretty parabolic bags.

 

With optimistic expectations

I started on my explorations,

And swore to move without a swerve

Along my sinusoidal curve.

Alas! I knew how it would end:

I’ve mixed the cycle with the trend,

And fear that, growing daily skinnier,

I have at length become non-linear.

I wander glumly round the house

As though I were exogenous,

And hardly capable of feeling

The difference ‘tween floor and ceiling.

I scarcely now, a pallid ghost,

Can tell ex ante from ex post:

My thoughts are sadly inelastic,

My acts invariably stochastic.

— Sir Dennis H. Robertson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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