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by paulryanrogers 1349 days ago
This analogy bothers me. It feels overly simplistic. To 'see' the bill--which the economist isn't even willing to believe can exist--in practice you need to observe and understand an increasingly convoluted financial world.

Said another way, to know whether someone is really pointing out a bill on the ground or just another scam you'd have to understand crypto and/or arbitrage to the same or better degree than them.

3 comments

Yeah, if someone is saying they are going to tell you where you can find a 100 dollar bill lying on the ground if you pay them $10s I would be suspicious.
It's more like:

I know where you can find a $100 bill on the ground. I'm selling maps to it for $10.

My point is that humans are not wholly rational creatures. Due to that fact, there is always an opportunity for arbitrage. I never said it was easy though, it may well indeed require understanding of crypto and arbitrage, more than others.
Thanks for clarifying. IME the analogy comes out too often when someone is implying "stupid economists are overlooking obvious opportunity", yet their bill-on-the-ground is actually some convoluted, borderline scam.