Knowing your stuff

I know that I've really solidified my understanding of something when I can explain it to someone else -- especially someone like my Mom or my 5 year old. Better yet, is to be so confident of your understanding that you can politely challenge someone else's thinking. I was given the opportunity to present the other side to a colleague today who is fresh out of school and got all of his economic info from his professors who sing the praises of the monetary system. I was pretty psyched to expand his understanding by showing him the harsh realities of the system. But as I started to head down that path, I started stumbling. I was all over the place -- interest rates were up, inflation was up (or is that down), foreign currency was devalued (is that a good thing). After what seemed like an eternity of incoherent babbling, I resorted to useless ad hominems -- "yeah, those fat cats on wall street are assholes, there's collusion on both sides, the whole system is fucked up". Way to go D! Important lesson today -- when you're not really sure about something, just keep your mouth shut. And if you want to know more about something, then really LEARN about it -- from others who know and by reading reliable sources, not 5 min Youtube vids.