johnny wrote:What's the difference between finance and economics?
Finance is the study of money: discounting, investing, accounting, etc. Economics is the study of choices given scare resources.
In my mind there's almost no overlap between the two. Finance is stuff I'm not interested in -- though I've sometimes fielded 'easy' finance questions on mymathforum. Economics, on the other hand, is fascinating to me; I studied microeconomic theory (along with math) in college.
In my view:
Personal finance topics on these forums: "Money making", "Cutting your expenses and saving money", "Planning your retirement"
Personal finance/finance topics on these forums: "Credit and debt", "Financial Risk Management", "Real Estate"
Finance topics on these forums: "Entrepreneurship and Private Equity", "Financial Analysis", "Accounting", "Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A)", "Stock market", "Forex markets", "Debt market", "Derivatives market", "Commodity market", "Quantitative finance"
Economics topics on these forums: n/a
Mathematical economics topics on these forums: n/a
Macroeconomic topics would be things like GDP calculation and trade balance. Microeconomic topics include moral hazards, externalities, and monopoly/oligopoly behavior. Mathematical economics includes game theory and axiomatic theories (social choice, e.g. Arrow's theorem).
