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[FOXNews.com</a> - Financial crisis drives up interest in economics - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News](<a href=“http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Nov21/0,4670,MeltdownTeachingEconomics,00.html]FOXNews.com”>http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Nov21/0,4670,MeltdownTeachingEconomics,00.html)</p>
<p>I’m an Econ major myself, but I’ve been interested in Econ way before the current crisis. Good to see more people are taking an interest - a basic understanding of Econ is important, I think. Also, I don’t know why it’s seen as the “dismal” science. I’m taking Environmental Science right now and it’s pretty dismal to me. We learn about how Soil Erosion will cause the downfall of humanity. exaggerating here but…there’s tons of subjects more dismal than Econ. Just my opinion.</p>
<p>I’m interested in becoming an econ major, after taking a course in macro this semester. I planned on taking it way before the financial crisis, but the crisis has interested me in other courses.</p>
<p>This happens every once in a while. When the biotech. revolution hits, science will grow exponentially. Same thing happened with computers, and thus Silicon Valley was formed.</p>
<p>This is good though, more fresh ideas to solve this global problem. Not something I would touch though, too boring for my tastes.</p>
<p>Well certainly the industry could use new blood with new ideas –</p>
<p>Still think we should have state mandates that every hs student be required to take a basic economics/personal finance course for graduation. I know this is mandated in certain states, but it is not as widespread as it could/should be.</p>
<p>I think Cosmology is the real dismal science … there is just no way out of ultimate doom.</p>
<p>And long before that happens, the sun would have exploded.</p>
<p>I don’t see how people can bear studying that stuff.</p>
<p>Ugh…I was planning on majoring in Econ - guess I’ll face more competition now =/</p>
<p>I fully agree with Rodney.</p>
<p>Rodney - I thought most states did require one. In NY, senior yr of HS, we have to take 1 semester of Participation in Govt and 1 semester of Econ. I always thought it was like this in most states. If not, it should be. I also think people should be required to stay in school until 17, but that’s just me. A lot more people would finish HS then.</p>
<p>This current crisis (and well, essentially in the last 6 years!) made me glad that I took AP Econ in high school so I wouldn’t have to take a college class to really understand what’s happening around me.</p>
<p>Yeah, there’s an Ohio law coming into effect that states that any student graduating in 2014 or after will be required to take a finance/economics semester in high school. </p>
<p>I took AP Econ myself, and though I thoroughly enjoyed it, I can’t see what bearing this has on the financial crisis - all that theory about aggregate supply curves and the discount rate and marginal revenue isn’t of any significance to this unless you really want to study this very deeply - and then you’d probably need a college-level grounding in Economics, is how it seems to me.</p>
<p>economics and american democracy are required in my school district</p>
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<p>In the last 21 years we’ve had the 1987 crash, the S&L/commercial real estate collapse of the early 90s, the Mexican financial crisis, the Asian crisis, the LTCM crisis, the bursting of the Nasdaq bubble and the associated Enron debacle, and now the credit crisis. </p>
<p>That’s one economic crisis every three years. Hardly “every once in a while” and hardly “boring” once it’s your own savings/livelihood at stake each time one of these occurs.</p>
<p>I’m a senior majoring in Finance and I think Physical Science is a dismal science. Why the hell would I care about rocks and wind speeds.</p>
<p>CbobbyB, I think “dismal” science refers to the inexact nature of the field, not how useless it is.</p>
<p>stargazerlilies,
Soil erosion may not be well-understood. But at least you can carry out experiments and observe the process in the lab. 
That said, I do laugh when people that appear on National Geographics talk about how our ancestors “actually” evolved…etc based on few pieces of “evidence” found in the dirt!</p>
<p>I think I’m majoring in finance rather than econ. It’s one thing as an econ major to understand the crisis, but it’s another to be manipulating the investments to make money. </p>
<p>Ultimately, we can all hate the CEOs of Lehman, and other iBanks, but they all got away with fat checks. So finance seems good.</p>
<p>Economics of called the “dismal” science because of its inherent pessimism. You science people can all hope that you’ll create something new. But, economics tells you that we all have infinite wants but finite resources. So regardless of what we do, we’re still screwed.</p>
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<p>Shouldn’t the course be called American Republic?</p>
<p>good.</p>
<p>maybe then people will question why in the last few years, we have been told over and over that inflated home values are good, but inflated gas prices are bad.</p>