Just took my first paper for this semester. It was quite ok, but most people thought so too. Guess all the hard work over the past week has really paid off for this module. At least I was able to write something on the paper and it seems to make sense. The paper was Signals, a module which seemed very daunting at the beginning. At least it's doable now, but I have no idea whether my answers are correct, haha. Will know when results are out.

There was an article on the front page of the Straits Times on Saturday about the inflation rate. It's the highest in 16 years, at 3. something %, I can't remember the exact figure. I remember a quote from an economist. He was so surprised he nearly fell out of his chair. Maybe their figures and past experience worked against them, but it seems very obvious to the man on the street that inflation will definitely be high with constantly increasing prices.

If a hawker raises his price from $2.50 to $3, that's a 20% increase. With many hawkers doing so and with food making up a large part of the CPI, why is it so surprising that inflation is high?

Those statements actually give me the feeling that the economists are out of touch with reality. Or perhaps the extra 50 cents didn't seem all that much relative to their salaries. Still, anyone can tell that inflation is high even without the CPI, so why is it so surprising to them? Out of touch with reality? Or simply too buried in the figures?