YYJ Skeptics in the Pub 01 June 1012
It is time for another SitP. As always, everyone is welcome to join us in good conversation, debate and laughs, Be ready to challenge beliefs and challenge others. Please let your friends know, and invite them along. We are always looking forward to lively conversation.
Skeptics in the pub is at the James Bay Inn Pub starting at 6pm
Hope to see you there!
YYJ Skeptics in the Pub April 27 2012
Once again… It is time for SitP. As always, everyone is welcome to join us in good conversation, debate and laughs, Be ready to challenge beliefs and challenge others. Please let your friends know, and invite them along. We are always looking forward to lively conversation.
Skeptics in the pub is at the James Bay Inn Pub starting at 6pm
Hope to see you there!
Is Economics harder to understand than ‘real’ science?
After watching this http://youtu.be/axS-QdUkMqk video I am growing increasingly more concerned that many Canadians understand economics even less than they understand science.
Even though it sounds silly, economics is a science. One part accounting, one part psychology. Sure it’s not well understood, but we can perform experiments and make predictions about the results. The results are often novel but you can do real science. I suppose it does make sense when you think about it. My high-school offered 4 science courses (Chemistry, Physics, Math, and Biology) up to the grade 12 honours level but only had a locally developed marketing course for econ. How will people understand econ if their entire exposure is Jack Donaghy? Most people will think of science as fundamentally achievable albeit difficult, but when the topic turns to economics most people will give up without even trying.
Consider: What is fractional reserve banking? Will CPP run out of money? Is it a ponzi scheme? If I earn a dollar above my tax bracket will my take home pay go down?
To remedy this, YYJ Skeptics presents: An introduction to Fractional Reserve Banking.
Let’s say you have $1000 dollars and decide to save it in a bank. Some people will claim the banks will ‘create’ $10,000 in some special sinister method. These people are wrong. They use a fallacy known as ‘Being Terrible at Math’. I’ll demonstrate through an example where Alice lends a bank $1000 and Bob borrows $900.
The Initial Conditions
| Alive | Bank | Bob | |||
| Assets | Liabilities | Assets | Liabilities | Assets | Liabilities |
| $1000 (Cash) | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
At this point, Alice has not yet deposited her money in the bank. All her money is in her hands. Now let’s look at it after she deposits it.
| Alice | Bank | Bob | |||
| Assets | Liabilities | Assets | Liabilities | Assets | Liabilities |
| $1000 (Deposit) | $0 | $1000(Cash) | $1000(Alice’s Loan) | $0 | $0 |
What’s this? It looks like there is $3000 dollars in play now. Clearly something is skeevy. Well no. If you add up all the cash, it still only totals $1000. The entries are Alice’s $1000 loan to the bank and the bank’s $1000 debt to Alice. That’s right, bank deposits are loans not cash. So the total money is still $1,000. But what happens when the bank loans out the money? Well, let’s see.
| Alice | Bank | Bob | |||
| Assets | Liabilities | Assets | Liabilities | Assets | Liabilities |
| $1000 (Deposit) | $0 | $100(Cash) $900(loan to bob) |
$1000(Alice’s Loan) | $900(Cash) | $900(Bank loan) |
We can count that the amount of money is still only $1000. All those other numbers? They all add up to zero.
Accounting is hard or at least boring enough to discourage all but the thickest glasses wearers. The fact is, it’s not that hard and is well within the grasp of anyone who wants to understand.
People who claim that banks are somehow creating money are wrong. They either don’t understand basic addition and subtraction or they’re being intentionally duplicitous. Remember to be Skeptical of people who think the world economic system is a scam.
Skeptics in the Pub – Mar 23, 2012
Come one, come all to spring’s first SitP. As always, everyone is welcome to join us in good conversation, debate and laughs, Be ready to challenge beliefs and challenge others. Please let your friends know, and invite them along. We are always looking forward to lively conversation.
Skeptics in the pub is being hosted at the James Bay Inn Pub at 6pm on March 23, 2012.
Hope to see you there!
Skeptics in the Pub Feb 24 2012
Come one, come all to the only scheduled SitP that’s in the future. As always, everyone is welcome to join us in good conversation, debate and laughs, Be ready to challenge beliefs and challenge others. Please let your friends know, and invite them along.. We are always looking forward to lively conversation.
This event will be held at the James Bay Inn starting at 6 PM. Hope to see you there.
Another Phone scam claiming to be BC Hydro…
BC Hydro is warning about a potential scam this winter season. Telemarketers claiming to be calling from BC Hydro are trying to sell energy-saving devices called “Hydro Power Savers.”
According to BC Hydro, they do not endorse “Hydro Power Savers” and has seen other potential scams in other provinces. As part of the calls, the alleged telemarketers are reportedly claiming that the “Hydro Power Savers” can save customers money on their bills. Customers who have been contacted by telemarketers about “Hydro Power Savers” are encouraged not to enter into any agreement for purchase.
The Better Business Bureau has included “power saving scams” as one of the Top Ten Scams for 2012.
Skeptics in the Pub Jan 20 2012
This is first SitP event of the New Year. As always, everyone is welcome to join us in good conversation, debate and laughs, Be ready to challenge beliefs and challenge others. Please let your friends know, and invite them along.. We are always looking forward to lively conversation.
This event will be held at the James Bay Inn starting at 6 PM. Hope to see you there.
16 December 2011 Skeptics in the Pub
The last SitP for 2011… As always, everyone is welcome to join us in good conversation, debate and laughs, Be ready to challenge beliefs and challenge others. Please let your friends know, and invite them along.. We are always looking forward to lively conversation.
We will be at the James Bay Inn starting at 6 PM until whenever…
Hope to see everyone there..
Giving CASS a helping hand with some research…
I received an email the other day from Michael Kruse who is with CASS (Committee for the Advancement of Scientific Skepticism) which is part of CFI. Here it is the main focus of it:
Hi Patrick,
While I have you, you may be able to help us out on a current CASS project as well.. We are attempting to re-run a study by Ben Goldacre, the Guardian Bad Science writer and physician, that analyzed nutrition claims made by articles in the top ten UK newspapers for their basis in current research. We have identified a number of papers in Canada including the Victoria Times-Colonist. Do you have anybody that could go through the paper for the week of Nov 7, identify stories about food and nutrition that make scientific claims and send us the articles?
thanks for your help on this one!
Do any of you get the TC delivered to your home? and if so, would be willing to do the search for this project?
Please let me know, either on here or direct message me thanks
Patrick
Skeptics in the Pub 18 Nov 11 6PM
Everyone is always welcome to join us in good conversation, debate and laughs, Be ready to challenge beliefs and challenge others. Please let your friends know, and invite them along.. We are always looking forward to lively conversation.
This is likely going to be the last SitP for 2011, as the holiday season is approaching fast.
Hopefully we’ll have an other good turnout. See you all on the 18th.
