Chapter 228 The first step towards becoming an economist
Principal Gu proposed dual bachelor's degrees, which surprised Zhang Wei.
It is not that Tsinghua University does not have dual bachelor's degrees. As early as 1985, the country issued the "Decision of the Central Committee on the Reform of the Education System" and proposed the term "double bachelor's degree" for the first time. Tsinghua University also launched the program in that year dual bachelor's degree system.
But Tsinghua University’s double bachelor’s degree program consists of one basic subject and one applied subject. For example, basic mathematics and physics subjects plus mechanical engineering, basic mathematics and physics subjects plus power engineering, chemical biology subjects plus materials science.
The combination of arts, economics and science and engineering will not appear until 2020 when Tsinghua University offers a dual bachelor's degree in computer science and finance. Before that, there was no dual degree combination of arts, economics and science and engineering.
In modern finance, big data analysis is already an essential part, so computers plus finance can be regarded as a practical combination.
But economics and biology are really completely unrelated.
Zhang Wei also knew that Tsinghua University’s dual majors did not include a combination of arts, economics and science, so he was surprised by the backdoor opened by Principal Gu.
You must know that even a school like Qingbei University must comply with the rules set by the Ministry of Education in terms of admissions rules. Obviously, it is impossible for the Ministry of Education to allow Qingdao University to carry out economics plus biology. Double degree system.
"Principal, are you kidding me? Economics and biology are completely unrelated. How can I pass the education level?" Zhang Wei asked.
"You also know that economics and biology have nothing to do with each other!" Principal Gu couldn't help but complain, and then said: "To tell you the truth, the Ministry of Education has always wanted us to launch a dual bachelor's degree cross-training program with Peking University. The pilot project, but I have always been suppressed.
I think about it, our basic scientific research is still far behind that of Western developed countries. Although we have caught up in some scientific aspects in recent years. , but it still lags behind developed countries! It doesn’t make much sense to study double majors now. You haven’t learned to walk yet, so you can’t rush to learn to run!
But since you want to study economics, Then I’ll put this dual-bachelor’s cross-training pilot to use on you! As the Ministry of Education has done, I can give you an explanation. It’s considered a pilot program for dual-bachelor degrees, and it will take you four years to graduate from college. , I can drag it on for four years."
"You said you were using me as a shield! Principal, you are so good, you have to thank both sides for one favor! You." Zhang Wei extended his thumb.
……
The Department of Economics and Management is the oldest major at Tsinghua University. Tsinghua University began to prepare the undergraduate department in 1925. When the undergraduate department was officially established in 1926, there were a total of 17 majors, including the Department of Economics.
It is worth mentioning that the Department of Music and the Department of Physical Education were both among the 17 majors at that time. By the time of National Tsinghua University, the Department of Music was cancelled, while the Department of Physical Education remained in the form of the Department of Sports, which continues to this day. .
In 1952, the departments of Tsinghua University were adjusted and began to focus on science and engineering majors. Because the Department of Economics was a liberal arts major, it was merged into other schools. It was not re-established until 1979 and started in 1980. The undergraduate program was restarted, and the School of Economics and Management at Tsingta University was established in 1984.
As far as undergraduates are concerned, the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University is not top-notch, but there are not many students at Tsinghua University who only go to undergraduate level. Moreover, majors such as economics are not very exclusive. Without a master's degree, there is no advantage in employment.
At the master's level, Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management has become outstanding, and at the doctoral level, it is not inferior to Peking University and Renmin University.
Qian Guoguang, the dean of the School of Economics and Management, is not only a top domestic economist, but also a member of several domestic policy economic research institutions. Simply put, he is a member of a national think tank.
At this time, Qian Guoguang was standing at the door of the main office building of Qing University, as if waiting for someone.
After a while, another scholar-looking person came from a distance. This person looked a few years younger than Qian Guoguang, but his hair was much whiter, which made him more of a scholar. temperament.
Seeing Qian Guoguang waiting at the door, the man immediately trotted over and said, "Dean, I'm sorry, I'm late."
"Yes. I'm early. Director Bai, let's go in and wait!" Qian Guoguang nodded.
The person who came later was Bai Qian, the deputy dean of the School of Economics and Management and the director of the Department of Economics.
As his name suggests, Bai Qian looks like a humble gentleman. He has a PhD from Harvard Business School. After graduation, he taught at an American university. Later, he gave up the high salary of an American university and chose to come back to build the motherland.
The two walked side by side to the elevator entrance. While waiting for the elevator, Bai Qian took the lead and asked, "I wonder why the principal came to us this time?"
" I don't know, the principal didn't say anything on the phone, but I guess it must be related to your economics department, otherwise he wouldn't have specifically told me to call you here." Qian Guoguang said.
“Our Department of Economics hasn’t launched any new projects recently!” Bai Qian frowned and thought for a moment, then continued: “The domestic economic situation is also relatively stable. Is it possible that the country will introduce any new policies? ”
Bai Qian said and looked tentatively at Qian Guoguang. He knew that Qian Guoguang was a member of a think tank. If new policies were to be introduced, Qian Guoguang would definitely get wind of it.
However, Qian Guoguang shook his head: "It's the end of the year, and even if there are new policies, they won't be introduced at this time. As for why Principal Gu came to us, we'll know when we get there."< br>
As they spoke, the two got on the elevator, then came to Principal Gu's office and met Principal Gu.
The secretary served tea to the two of them, and the three of them exchanged brief greetings before getting to the point.
"I came to you this time because one of the freshmen this year wants to study in the Economics Department of your college." Principal Gu said.
"This semester is almost over. Do you want to study in the Department of Economics? Are you changing majors or taking experimental classes?" Qian Guoguang asked.
“I’m from the experimental class.” Principal Gu replied.
"The experimental class is all high-scoring candidates, of course we welcome them with both hands." Qian Guoguang said immediately.
The principal has already proposed it, so I don’t have to accept it even if I don’t agree. But Qian Guoguang was thinking about another point. What kind of freshman is worthy of the principal personally admonishing him? Could it be the family of someone important?
Principal Gu went on to say, "You must be curious, who is this freshman, right? I won't give in, he is Zhang Wei! Our number one treasure at Tsinghua University!"
"Which Zhang Wei?" Qian Guoguang asked subconsciously.
"Who else can be Zhang Wei! The Zhang Wei from the biology department!"
"You are talking about Zhang Wei!" Qian Guoguang exclaimed, and suddenly showed an incredible expression, If these words didn't come from Principal Gu's mouth, he wouldn't believe it even if I beat him to death.
It was Bai Qian, the dean of the Economics Department next to him, who came to his senses first. He asked: "Principal, I remember that when I first came to Tsinghua University last year, I heard about Zhang Wei. Why is he still a university student?" A freshman? "
"Zhang Wei's situation is quite special. He dropped out of school for two consecutive years and then came back, so this is his third year as a freshman!" Principal Gu looked helpless. expression.
"Drop out? Come back again? It takes three years for a freshman to study? What's this picture! Didn't he make several great scientific research results? He said he is enough to be evaluated as an academician, so why do he still need to study for a freshman? Bai Qian asked with a puzzled look on his face.
"Geniuses always have some special quirks, which we have to understand. And this year, not only is he going to be a freshman, he also specifies that he wants to study economics!"
"Why? "Our economics has nothing to do with biology. It makes no sense for biologists to study economics!" Qian Guoguang continued.
"He said that he suddenly became more interested in economics. This kid is willful. Since he is interested, let him be! Anyway, as long as he stays in our Tsingta University, it will be fine." President Gu said in his words Full of doting.
Qian Guoguang and Bai Qian looked at each other, and then said: "Principal, then you came to us, do you have any specific instructions."
"I hope that after Zhang Wei arrives at the School of Economics and Management, you will take good care of him and don't treat him as an ordinary student. If he has any needs, you can do your best to meet them. If you can't meet them, come to me directly and I will find a way to solve them. !" Principal Gu said.
"Principal, don't worry, even if you don't give orders, we will definitely take good care of you!" Qian Guoguang said quickly.
"Also, you have to keep an eye on him and don't let him get into trouble again!" Principal Gu continued.
"Again?" The word "Again?" fell into Qian Guoguang's ears, and his heart immediately tightened.
I love Zhang Wei, this treasure from Tsinghua University, who is not only good at doing scientific research, but also often gets into trouble!
According to the principal's intention, he still has to take care of Zhang Wei and follow Zhang Wei's needs, even if he gets into trouble, he won't be punished?
This is bringing back an ancestor!
At this time, the two finally understood why Principal Gu wanted to come to them personally. This was to give the School of Economics and Management a wind-up first!
“One more thing!” Principal Gu continued: “Zhang Wei has been in his freshman year for three years. I’m really worried that something will happen to him this year and he’ll drop out of school again, so I I’ll give you a task, no matter what, let him get promoted to sophomore year!”
“Principal, I don’t dare to guarantee anything else, this thing is easy to handle! Let alone promotion to sophomore year, just graduate directly! No problem! Economics is the easiest place to graduate.
As long as you want to make things come true in economics, you can make it come true no matter what. Even if he doesn't say a word in his graduation defense, I can still give him a reason for silent economics and let him graduate. "Bai Qian said with a smile.
"Silent economics? I don’t know much about economics, so it turns out there is such a school of thought! "Principal Gu said.
"No, but you can make it up now. "When Bai Qian told lies, his face didn't turn red and his heart didn't beat. He still looked like a humble gentleman.
"Those who come back from the United States know how to adapt! "Principal Gu thought secretly.
Qian Guoguang asked: "Principal, when will Zhang Wei come to our School of Economics and Management to report? ”
"Maybe by the end of this month!"
"Understood, there are still unfinished projects in the biology department. Then I'll wait for your news." Qian Guoguang said.
“It’s not about the Department of Biology, but this guy flew to the United States again this morning. He said that when he was a visiting scholar in the United States in the first half of the year, he wrote a book by the way, and the sales were pretty good. This time he went Collect the royalties." Bai Qian showed a surprised expression; "I always thought that only academic works on economics had a better market in the United States. I didn't expect that academic works on biology could also have better sales in the United States."
“It’s not a biology book, it’s a novel, what the hell is it called hunger and thirst!”
"Hungry and thirsty?" Qian Guoguang and Bai Qian frowned at the same time.
These two words don’t sound like a serious work.
It seems that this Zhang Wei is really a problematic person!
……
After Zhang Wei arrived in the United States, he immediately went straight to the Amazon Publishing Department.
Upon learning of Zhang Wei's arrival, Thomas greeted him enthusiastically.
More than half a year ago, Zhang Wei was still an inconspicuous rookie writer. He had to rely on Comas McCarthy's letter of recommendation to get Thomas to take a look.
But now, Zhang Wei is the number one best-selling author on Amazon, and is considered a leading figure in Amazon publishing. His treatment is naturally very different from before.
Zhang Wei's "The Thirst Game" had great momentum when it was first launched, and soon broke into the top ten sales on Amazon. After entering the summer vacation, it made even greater progress and entered the top three.
Originally, "The Thirst Game" was expected to hit the number one spot, but on July 16, a demon-level novel was released on the market, that is JK Rowling's "Harry Potter and... Half-Blood Prince".
Half-Blood Prince sold 6.9 million copies on its first day in North America, unsurprisingly ranking first on various sales lists.
However, Half-Blood Prince's stamina was somewhat lacking, and it was unable to maintain this ultra-high sales volume.
Half-Blood Prince's previous work, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," has the highest sales volume in the entire series. It is precisely because of the poor sales of the previous work that readers have a negative impression of Half-Blood Prince. Expectations were not high.
More importantly, in this part, Dumbledore died.
Scenarios like the death of a teammate are always unpleasant, not to mention the death of a teammate with the highest combat effectiveness. This scenario alone has dissuaded many readers.
A few days before the release of Half-Blood Prince, the book buyers were all die-hard fans. There are many die-hard fans of the Harry Potter series, so sales in the first few days were naturally high. Once the die-hard fans have bought the book, the rest of the readers will decide whether to buy it or not based on word-of-mouth reviews.
As a result, I found out that Dumbledore was dead! This immediately dissuaded many readers. As a result, subsequent sales of Half-Blood Prince were somewhat weak.
Amazon’s publishing department does not want Half-Blood Prince to dominate the list for a long time, because the publishing of the Harry Potter series in North America is represented by Xuele Group, and Amazon is only one of the sales channels, which means it can make some money. fee.
In contrast, "The Thirst Game" is published by Amazon itself, and all the money it makes is its own, so of course it must be praised.
So in September, when the limelight of Half-Blood Prince passed, Amazon allocated some resources, and "The Thirst Game" successfully ranked first on Amazon's sales list.
Although Amazon has given resources to the game, there is a saying that you need to be strong to strike the iron. Being able to overtake Half-Blood Prince itself shows that the quality of "Thirst Game" is high enough. At least when facing the Harry Potter series, I can fight back a little bit.
That's the Harry Potter series, so it's not easy to fight back.
Based on this alone, Zhang Wei is the most valuable writer in Amazon Publishing Department at the moment.
After the two exchanged pleasantries, Thomas directly asked about the sequel to "The Thirst Game".
"Mr. Zhang, have you started writing the second part of "The Thirst Game"? If possible, I hope to see this sequel next summer." Thomas said .
"Next summer? There's still half a year left. Is it so urgent?" Zhang Wei asked.
Thomas explained: "July every year is the best time for new book publishing. More importantly, there will be no Harry Potter for sale next year. According to the news we received, the next one Harry Potter will be released in the summer of the next year.
And the next Harry Potter will be the finale of the entire series, and it can be expected that it will be extremely popular. , the finale of Harry Potter will sweep the entire book market, and it will definitely affect sales."
"I understand," Zhang Wei nodded after thinking for a moment. He opened his mouth and said: "I should be able to finish the second part of "The Thirst Game" in May next year."
"May? Then publish it in early July. That's enough time." Thomas nodded with a smile. nodded.
Zhang Wei said: "Mr. Thomas, actually I came to you this time because I want to publish another book."
"Oh? Mr. Zhang has a new work? I really can't wait to read it. Just for a moment!" Thomas said immediately.
Zhang Wei took out a thick stack of manuscripts from his backpack, and then said: "The subject matter of this book is different from "The Thirst Game". This is a realistic book. A fantasy novel with the same theme.”
Thomas took the manuscript and looked at the title on the first page.
"The Big Short"!
Thomas then turned to the first page, which contained an introduction to the work.
“A financial crisis has caused unimaginable damage to Wall Street, which has always been famous. However, in the midst of the chaos, there are some unknown people who have already seen the loopholes in the market.
This book shows such a group of "terminators" with superior intelligence and weird personalities. They were only unknown Wall Street employees before, but because of their mistakes. The boom in the loan market and the proliferation of financial instruments were full of doubts and distrust. They finally saw the market madness that neither the Federal Reserve nor the Treasury Department was aware of, and placed bets on the imminent collapse of American financial institutions. As a result, they defeated Wall Street..."< br>
Seeing the word "financial crisis", Thomas frowned slightly, and then he asked: "Mr. Zhang, is this writing about something from the last century?"
"No. , It’s a matter of this century,” Zhang Wei replied.
"In this century, there was only one Internet bubble at the beginning of the century. It shouldn't be considered a financial crisis, right?"
"The background of my story happened in 2006, which is next year."
< br>"You mean, a financial crisis will break out in the United States next year?" Thomas asked.
"Fantasy novels, of course, need some gimmicks. If it were the same as usual, who would buy it and read it!" Zhang Wei said with a smile.
……
How to become a well-known economist?
You can study economics in depth after years of study, and then propose a set of economic theories. As long as your economic theory can be recognized by some people, you can be regarded as a well-known person. economist.
You can also go to a certain financial institution to build up your resume, such as a certain investment bank or a certain private equity consultant. You can look at the data and talk a few unnecessary nonsense on weekdays. When the resume is mixed up, he can be regarded as an economist.
You can also go to some economic research institutions or think tanks, where you study data and write reports every day. If you can get a reputation in such institutions or think tanks, you can also call yourself an economist.
If you can't do these things, you can also write some articles on economics, and then submit articles to newspapers or magazines to make yourself familiar in front of readers. Over time, readers will also feel that you are Is an economist.
Of course, the fastest way is to predict!
Forecasting economic trends and financial trends, as long as your predictions are accurate enough, you can quickly rise to the top and become a popular economist.
Many economists have made a name for themselves by successfully predicting a certain economic event.
Of course, there are people like Zhang Bureau who make predictions every year and are inaccurate every year, but they are called famous economists just because they predict things you like to hear.
Everyone is like this, even if you are full of lies, as long as what you say is what others like to hear, you will definitely be welcomed.
For economists, a more common prediction is to predict that a central bank will raise interest rates or cut reserve requirements in the future; Predict the extent of interest rate hikes or RRR cuts;
Even more powerful, you can accurately predict when and to what extent the central bank will raise interest rates or lower RRR.
If you have the ability to predict this, you won’t have to worry about food. Some financial institutions will pay you to write reports.
If your predictions are not just at the financial level, but can rise to the industrial level, then you will definitely become a guest of commercial banks and investment banks, and even national think tanks can extend an olive branch to you.
Predictions at the industrial level are no longer something ordinary economists can do, and it is even more difficult to predict accurately!
And what if you could predict an economic crisis?
There is no doubt that you will become the top economist in the world. The eyes of the world will be on you, and the prestige it brings will be enough for you to gain a foothold in the economics field for a lifetime.
What Zhang Wei plans to do now is to predict an upcoming economic crisis!
There are still two years until the subprime mortgage crisis breaks out in the United States. If we could have successfully predicted the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis two years ago, we would have even made the causes and consequences of the entire subprime mortgage crisis clear. Then you will definitely become the most popular economist of our time!
The book "The Big Short" is Zhang Wei's first step towards becoming an economist.
(End of this chapter)