Shawn Vestal:  Economics are an utter mystery.

For example: I thought I understood a central economic belief of the past 30 years, a value going back to Reagan and JFK, that when you put money in people’s hands, it ripples through the whole country. Trickles, if you will. But this turns out to be much more complicated: If you cut a rich person’s taxes, that money will radiate outward, turn into jobs and make everyone’s lives better. But if you supply, say, 1 million poor people with money to buy groceries, that money does no rippling whatsoever. It simply bankrupts the country, financially and morally.

They’re not for dummies, these economics.