Contrary to many of the reviews here, I thought Prof. Hou did a good job at teaching Economics. True, he goes off on many tangents, and rushes through some material, but if you follow the reading.. the stuff is easy. The midterm and finals weren't tricky at all.. in fact, if people stayed after class was over and talked to him about it, he'd give a few hints on what the essay topics were going to be about. I strongly recommended that you attend his lectures and keep up with the reading; if you start getting behind, it may take a while to catch up. For a GE--I dont recommend, take a diff prof. But for your major--Go and take him. You'll come out with a new appreciation for economics.

I suppose if you are very interested in economics (if that is your major, etc), then it might be a little more interesting. But DO NOT take this class as a GE with Hou. I'm not an economist, nor do I plan to be, so I was hoping that my professor would be good enough to help me understand the matierial. If he didn't spend so much time talking about football, his camry, and the economy in Taiwan, then maybe I would have. All this sidetracking leads him to rush through his lectures, which proved to be VERY confusing. Sure, it was entertaining most of the time. Unfortunately, nothing about his favorite Chinese bakery showed up on the exam. Overall, I do not recommend him, "Capiche?"

he is a very good teacher, contrary to popular belief. i thought his exams were challenging, but he didn't pull any tricks. fyi...you SHOULD attend his lectures because he asks essay questions straight from them. he does go off track sometimes, but i thought it wasn't too much of a distraction...it actually kept me awake in his lectures...

Just as many others have said, Hou spends WAY too much time blabbing about his personal life, which he finds fascinating and hilarious, while I found it a complete waste of time. He strays off topic ALL the time, and when he realizes this 2 lectures before the mid-term, he crams everything important into 2 lectures, going extremely fast and explaining nothing. You have to take notes REALLY fast because he uses initials and acronyms all the time, and if you don't catch their meaning the first time, you're out of luck. slept through a few of his classes while he talked about China and his first computer and how to make his wife happy. Your time is better spent getting to know the book well, because the multiple choice part of his tests is completely based on the book, which he doesn't explain at all. If at all possible, take someone else.