Thursday, October 08, 2009

Old Men and My C's

Yesterday in class, Prof Papa (not to be confused with Prof Rafa)
mentioned orphan drugs and my heart stopped beating for a second.
Though I think that's part of the regularly rhythm of heart beat. He
asked if anyone knew who they were and I happily answered, perhaps the
first and only time my past 2 years has come in handy in econ, and
only for that brief second. In fact, I'm not even sure if he heard
me. The economic incentives for supporting orphan drugs aside, he
said some profound things in class yesterday, and I, of course, jotted
them down instead of drawing demand curves like I should have.

(on price discrimination)

Prof Papa: What has 4 i's but cannot see? Discrimination.

(on cartels and price fixing)

Prof Papa: Cheating in a cartel is like cheating in affairs- sooner or
later, everyone finds out.

Professor Rafa, on the other hand, just struggles with the mic.

Student: We can't really hear you.

Prof Rafa: (fidgets a little) Is this better?

Student: Yes.

Prof Rafa: Good. Because I didn't do anything.

And his command of class...

Student: I think people are confused because they think the question
is whether A causes L, not Y.

Prof Rafa: But that's not what I asked.

Student: I know. I think they just think-

Prof Rafa: I'm trying to earn the freedom to ask the questions how I
want, but everyone keeps changing my questions.

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