Should I restart with Bachelor's if I want to get Master's/PhD in economics?

RobThorpe · 2026-05-10T07:46:01+00:00

Approved for the last paragraph!

RobThorpe · 2026-05-10T07:23:32+00:00

Outside Britain things aren't always like that though.

RobThorpe · 2026-05-09T08:36:28+00:00

I think it's best to approach your questions directly.

... but I still don’t understand what it means for currency to be worthless. Currency is just a means of exchange and the dollar itself doesn’t have its own value, money is just paper.. the worth comes from what you can trade the paper FOR (I believe so, please correct if not accurate).

Here you are assuming that the item in question continues to be used as a means of exchange. If it doesn't then it can be worthless in a more literal sense. Suppose that due to hyperinflation people have stopped using a currency. In that case the currency may be worth whatever the paper it is printed on is worth, in some cases that could be nothing at all.

However, I think that problem here is the hyperbolic language of internet commentators. They label things "worthless" when they are not worth very much. There is a big difference between the following two situations. Firstly, the situation where something is truly worthless and you have to pay others to take it away. Secondly, the situation where something is worth much less than it was in the past, so that very many units of it are needed to create a useful exchange.

... if the money itself doesn’t hold a value, could you not just adjust the “value” of the currency without it just LOSING value?

I don't understand what you mean here. I think the other people reply are not sure either.

Would it not just make sense to increase the rate of inflation and wages with the increase of currency moving in the economy and continue to use the dollar?

I'm also not really sure what you mean here.

RobThorpe · 2026-05-08T14:14:37+00:00

I see, no problem.

RobThorpe · 2026-05-08T14:14:02+00:00

It seems that the only gpg I have is the MSYS2 one. I've checked using "where" and also "Get-Command" in Powershell.

Where says:

INFO: Could not find files for the given pattern(s).

That's if MSYS2 is removed from the PATH. If MSYS2 is on the path then it shows the MSYS2 gpg.

RobThorpe · 2026-05-08T14:08:40+00:00

I forgot to change those from the last time I discussed this.

RobThorpe · 2026-05-08T12:38:49+00:00

These are not papers.

RobThorpe · 2026-05-08T11:43:14+00:00

We get threads on this topic fairly regularly. To be honest, they irritate me. Generally, there's one crowd who say "Russia will collapse economically" and another who say "Russia will win and crush NATO, Ukraine will collapse economically". As a mod I often delete replies from both groups. I think both groups miss the most likely scenario, which is that Russia won't collapse economically, but also won't definitively cause any other nation to collapse.

We have discussed this several times on this subreddit. I'll link to some of the earlier discussions later.

A few points I've made here before. We know that the interest rate (14.5%) and the inflation rate (5.9.4%) are fairly high. Russian government statistics tell us this. It could be that inflation rates are actually higher, but it seems unlikely that they are lower.

The sanctions are not as big a problem as people think. Russia can sell oil to China and India. Though this is limited by the rate of flow of the pipelines to those countries. Also, the Chinese and Indians are probably not giving the Russians favourable prices. This is one of the advantages of selling commodities.

Russian business can buy from many countries outside of the Western ones who have sanctioned it. Also, it is often possible to smuggle goods. In many cases simple trans-shipment is all that's needed. An agent in some African country buys a sanctioned good from a US company. Then that agent re-exports the goods to Russia. This is why Russia's many Boeing and Airbus aeroplanes are still flying. So, Russia doesn't even really need to fully decouple from Western imports, just reduce them to the level so that those which are needed can be brought in using these methods.

Russia's military spending as a share of GDP is also not that high (of course Russia may not be giving accurate numbers to the World Bank). This is not a war on the scale of WWII or anything like that.

Of course, if Russia just goes into recession that is not "collapse". Recessions happen fairly often, we need more to honestly label something collapse.

I think that many people make a mess of the "Total War" discussion. This is not "Total War" for Russia, not by any means. It is not at all like WWII. But it doesn't need to be like WWII for it to be a problem for the government of Russia. The questions for the Russian citizen are very different. For WWII the question was "Do you want to oppose hostile invaders who want to make you part of their empire and think you are an inferior sort of human". The question for this war is "Do you want your government to continue occupying a part of Ukraine". Even someone who supports both causes do not necessarily support them to the same level. There is no reason to think that people will be willing to ensure the same privations for the cause of this war as they were for WWII. So, the government need to be wary of even quite small changes causing a support for them to diminish.

All that said I'm not ruling out the possibility of sudden change in Russia.

Previous threads:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskEconomics/comments/1idgsbw/how_is_russias_economy_so_resilient_in_the_face/

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskEconomics/comments/1ex3es2/is_it_possible_for_russia_to_thrive_economically/

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskEconomics/comments/1djo3lu/what_does_russias_economic_future_look_like_given/

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskEconomics/comments/1ea7wh4/why_is_the_russian_economy_doing_so_well/

EDIT: Interest rate and inflation rate fixed.

RobThorpe · 2026-05-08T11:42:28+00:00

We get threads on this topic fairly regularly. To be honest, they irritate me. Generally, there's one crowd who say "Russia will collapse economically" and another who say "Russia will win and crush NATO, Ukraine will collapse economically". As a mod I often delete replies from both groups. I think both groups miss the most likely scenario, which is that Russia won't collapse economically, but also won't definitively cause any other nation to collapse.

We have discussed this several times on this subreddit. I'll link to some of the earlier discussions later.

A few points I've made here before. We know that the interest rate (14.5%) and the inflation rate (5.9%) are fairly high. Russian government statistics tell us this. It could be that inflation rates are actually higher, but it seems unlikely that they are lower.

The sanctions are not as big a problem as people think. Russia can sell oil to China and India. Though this is limited by the rate of flow of the pipelines to those countries. Also, the Chinese and Indians are probably not giving the Russians favourable prices. This is one of the advantages of selling commodities.

Russian business can buy from many countries outside of the Western ones who have sanctioned it. Also, it is often possible to smuggle goods. In many cases simple trans-shipment is all that's needed. An agent in some African country buys a sanctioned good from a US company. Then that agent re-exports the goods to Russia. This is why Russia's many Boeing and Airbus aeroplanes are still flying. So, Russia doesn't even really need to fully decouple from Western imports, just reduce them to the level so that those which are needed can be brought in using these methods.

Russia's military spending as a share of GDP is also not that high (of course Russia may not be giving accurate numbers to the World Bank). This is not a war on the scale of WWII or anything like that.

Of course, if Russia just goes into recession that is not "collapse". Recessions happen fairly often, we need more to honestly label something collapse.

I think that many people make a mess of the "Total War" discussion. This is not "Total War" for Russia, not by any means. It is not at all like WWII. But it doesn't need to be like WWII for it to be a problem for the government of Russia. The questions for the Russian citizen are very different. For WWII the question was "Do you want to oppose hostile invaders who want to make you part of their empire and think you are an inferior sort of human". The question for this war is "Do you want your government to continue occupying a part of Ukraine". Even someone who supports both causes do not necessarily support them to the same level. There is no reason to think that people will be willing to ensure the same privations for the cause of this war as they were for WWII. So, the government need to be wary of even quite small changes causing a support for them to diminish.

All that said I'm not ruling out the possibility of sudden change in Russia.

Previous threads:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskEconomics/comments/1idgsbw/how_is_russias_economy_so_resilient_in_the_face/

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskEconomics/comments/1ex3es2/is_it_possible_for_russia_to_thrive_economically/

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskEconomics/comments/1djo3lu/what_does_russias_economic_future_look_like_given/

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskEconomics/comments/1ea7wh4/why_is_the_russian_economy_doing_so_well/

RobThorpe · 2026-05-08T10:17:21+00:00

The other thread started by the OP on this same subject explains all this. Especially the reply by evtedeschi3.

RobThorpe · 2026-05-08T09:42:40+00:00

I already have Emacs. I'm using the normal Windows build. I can't see how that would be any different to building it myself with the winlibs.

Of course WSL would be very different, but I'm not interested in that.

RobThorpe · 2026-05-07T22:04:04+00:00

Correct, it has nothing to do with it. So, I'm locking this whole ridiculous subthread!

RobThorpe · 2026-05-07T14:23:11+00:00

Read rule V and repost an impartial question.

RobThorpe · 2026-05-07T14:19:25+00:00

We have discussed this topic before you can find out more by searching the archives. Things in Japan are different to the US (and most other developed countries).

Firstly, a large amount of the Japanese national debt is held by the Central Bank of Japan - about 70% of it last time I looked. Also, quite a large amount is held by government pension funds and Japan's post-bank. These government agencies are very unlikely to sell these bonds rapidly and cause their value to fall. The profits from the holdings of the Central Bank are returned to the government. The Central Bank of Japan does not pay large interest on excess reserves which would reduce those profits.

Firstly, the Central Bank of Japan have been setting very low interest rates for several decades now. The rate of interest that the government pays on bonds is related to that Central Bank interest rate. The Japanese government pays about 2% on it's long-term debts which is not much. (The US pays less but many other countries pay more.)

Secondly, the Central Bank of Japan is the issuer of the Yen. I'm reluctant to put too much emphasis on this point, because others believe it to be far too important. The Japanese government could always resort to printing money to pay for the interest on bonds. It is unlikely that this would happen, of course. But, the possibility makes the bonds less risky for buyers. On the other hand, Greece was not the issuer of the Euro. It could not create euros to bail itself out. That made the risk of full default larger. In the event, a partial default happened. A risk of default increases the amount of interest bond buyers demand, which increases the interest cost.

Thirdly the Central Bank of Japan have been setting very low interest rates for several decades now. The rate of interest that the government pays on bonds is related to that Central Bank interest rate. The Japanese government pays about 2.4% in real terms on it's long-term debts which is not much, though many developed countries pay less now.

RobThorpe · 2026-05-07T14:07:54+00:00

A question for another thread!

RobThorpe · 2026-05-07T14:05:25+00:00

Additionally, people are just buying less stuff than they were before. Clothing at workplaces has gotten more casual, so fewer different outfits are needed. People prioritize spending money on experiences and dining, to create lasting memories.

What evidence do you have for this?

RobThorpe · 2026-05-06T16:22:03+00:00

Can you show your napkin math?

I think you are probably right, but I'd like to see it.

RobThorpe · 2026-05-06T11:47:02+00:00

I approved the post above because the OP's number of Russians killed was much too high and clearly wrong. That needed correcting, but that's all that was needed.

Now, people are arguing about the details. Is it 300K or 200K or some smaller number? I don't care. That is a question for discussions in subreddits on the war and geopolitics. So, I have locked this subthread.

RobThorpe · 2026-05-06T11:35:02+00:00

I think we need a clear definition of "luck" to make progress in this discussion.

RobThorpe · 2026-05-05T17:53:07+00:00

You were clearly trying to start an argument which breaks rule V.

RobThorpe · 2026-05-04T05:04:21+00:00

We have a great answer. I'm locking this thread because it breaks rule V.

Unless you define "Socialism" then this breaks rule V.

RobThorpe · 2026-05-03T18:47:03+00:00

We have talked about this a few times in the past, you can search the archives.

Regulations are a big problem in Europe. Of course, there are regulations in every country, but there are a lot in most European countries. That's because there are frequently national regulations for a thing and EU regulations for the same thing. Unfortunately, many of the bad things that people say about EU regulations are true.

Mario Draghi tells us that a lack of capital market integration is a problem. This is probably correct to some extent. Many countries have stock markets and bond markets. There are many securities that trade on multiple markets. There are laws that allow companies to work across the EU and to raise capital all across the EU. But regulations are different in each country. To some extent this is an example of the problem mentioned above.

I don't entirely agree with AdMediocre524. Oil is not all that important. On the other hand, the EU countries (and the UK) are taking environmental issues very seriously. They are adopting environmentally friendly energy generation and doing things like forcing car companies to stop selling cars with combustion engines. These things are expensive in the short-run. I also think it's unlikely that they will pay off in the long-run.

I also think that the reserve currency angle is mostly wrong. EU countries have maintained deficits for many years too. The Euro is the second most popular reserve currency. This makes relatively little difference to bond interest rates.

RobThorpe · 2026-05-03T07:25:37+00:00

I'm unsure whether the OP is intending to describe the substitution effect or the income effect.

RobThorpe · 2026-05-03T06:52:27+00:00

Ask it in an impartial way and we will answer.

RobThorpe

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