Economics – Group 1 Learning Miscellany 1) -------------------------------------------------
Introduction
Economics is not an exact science, as it has to factor-in human behaviour. It assumes that the market is logical or rational in its behaviour. We know that the actions of humans are not always rational, hence events like the economic crash in 2008. No matter how much history teaches us, we still sometimes take irrational actions.
The principals explained in Greg Mankiw’s book “The Principles of Economics” are based on ten principles, which are difficult to image in the real world. It is as if you have to “put on hold” your rational thoughts in order to understand the models used.
The economy is influenced by government policies and businesses driven by profits. Businesses like governments can have beliefs that are motivated by left, central and right winged policies, depending upon where you live. These can influence how we manage society, either purely from a profit driven perspective or from an equal balancing of profit and social good.

2) -------------------------------------------------
Miscellany Weekly Learning Notes a. General Introduction (D)
In recent weeks considerable national media attention was given to the story of people queueing to buy a development of new houses in Swords, North County Dublin. This raised the question whether we are witnessing the re-emergence of a “bubble” in the housing market and whether we had learned little from the boom and bust of the Celtic Tiger era.
A recent survey by the property website daft.ie showed that property prices had increased nationally by an average of 9.7% in the year to July 2014. However, if we examine these figures in more depth, we can see that the causes of the current surge in property prices is very different to that which fuelled the previous “bubble”.
The key factors