From the "economists told you so pile"...the government of Venezuela set maximum prices for necessary household items, and, if you've been following along with the analysis of price ceilings, so probably aren't surprised that the country is now facing a national shortage of toilet paper. Ew.

In case you felt the need for your geekiness to transcend genre, Matt Yglesias has got you covered.

As an undergraduate, I studied computer science and mathematics. My mother, subsequently, started directing all of her computer tech support questions to me and was, in a way, less than impressed with the education I had received. My father, on the other hand, asks for investment advice whenever I go to visit and doesn't like when my advice is "don't even try unless your name is Warren Buffett." (In related news, check out the Efficent-Markets Hypothesis.)

Apparently I am not along in this situation, so Greg Mankiw has put together a handy primer on what economists can say about investing in the stock market. My advice is to pay special attention to the part about owning stock in your employer.

Last week, Paul Krugman lamented that economics textbooks don't sufficiently cover the strategy of raising inflation expectations to get out of a liquidity trap. Some other economists disagree with this classification. Either way, the liquidity trap is a relevant issue since we appear to essentially be in one right now, so I'm doing my part and putting the information out there for much less than the price of a textbook.