I’m on my honeymoon, but want to make sure I’m still providing you interesting things to think about. Instead of writing a long article, I am going to share several videos.
The title of this post is a quote from the Bill Clinton campaign in 1992: it’s the economy stupid. There is a great documentary The War Room that goes behind the scenes of the campaign:
I find election strategy fascinating, even though politics overall is extremely boring. If a movie isn’t your preferred format, I also recommend the book on Obama’s 2008 campaign The Audacity to Win and Dilbert creator Scott Adam’s blog on Trump’s persuasion techniques.
Plus the “it’s the economy stupid” slogan was created by the Ragin’ Cajun James Carville who is 100 times more awesome for being in the movie Old School:
The Economy Touches All
It is crazy how the economy plays a role in everything – it is overarching and ever-present. It has an influence on everything from taxes to gasoline prices, whether you get it at the pump to fuel your car or delivered to your home from someone like bondedoil.com to power your home heating, to your job security, yet most people hardly give it a thought.
Even a basic understanding of economics will illuminate how the world works. Luckily there are some videos that are entertaining and will get you up to speed quickly.
Start with How The Economic Machine Works by Ray Dalio for a great overview including credit, interest rates, and cycles:
Then there is a great free course in development at Marginal Revolution University with dozens of high quality videos on specific micro and macro economic topics. This one even includes a Seinfeld reference, so definitely worth watching:
For a rap battle style economic education, be sure to check out Fear the Boom and Bust:
And if you like rap education, check out Science with Tom, my friend’s brilliant effort to get more kids interested in science:
The Take Aways
The goal is to have a basic understanding of how everything is related. Cycles, inflation, interest rates, prices, savings, supply, demand, etc.
Make it a goal to slowly improve your understanding over time, don’t worry if it sounds overwhelming right now. This will give you a deeper understanding of why rental properties work.
Please let me know what you think about these videos and if you have any resources you recommend. I might be a little slow to respond to the comments, but will get back to you soon!