Posted: 26 Aug 2011 01:50 PM PDT

New book on the history of economics by Sylvia Nassar, author of “A Beautiful Mind”:

In a sweeping narrative, the author of the megabestseller A Beautiful Mind takes us on a journey through modern history with the men and women who changed the lives of every single person on the planet. It's the epic story of the making of modern economics, and of how economics rescued mankind from squalor and deprivation by placing its material fate in its own hands rather than in Fate.

via Amazon

Novelists as Economists

Posted: 26 Aug 2011 11:51 AM PDT

From a new economics paper by Harvard’s Dani Rodrik, the concession that novelists do a better job than economists in predicting the financial future. The author highlights Gary Shteyngart’s dystopically fun latest novel.

Novelists have a better track record than economists at foretelling the future. Consider then Gary Shteyngart's timely comic novel "Super Sad True Love Story" (Random House, 2010), which provides a rather graphic vision of what lies in store for the world economy. The novel takes place in the near future and is set against the backdrop of a United States that lies in economic and political ruin. The country's bankrupt economy is ruled with a firm hand by the IMF from its new Parthenon-shaped headquarters in Singapore. China and sovereign wealth funds have parceled America's most desirable real estate among themselves. Poor people are designated as LNWI ("low net worth individuals") and are being pushed into ghettoes. Even skilled Americans are desperate to acquire residency status in foreign lands. (A degree in econometrics helps a lot, as it turns out). Ivy League colleges have adopted the names of their Asian partners and yuan-backed dollars are the only safe currency.

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KC Fed JH Papers

Posted: 26 Aug 2011 11:39 AM PDT

Some of the KC Fed Jackson Hole papers now up now up on the meeting website. More will likely get added later.

Opening Remarks	BEN S. BERNANKE Chairman, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Assessing Current Trends in Global Growth

Author:	DANI RODRIK Professor, Harvard University

Discussant:	PIER CARLO PADOAN Deputy Secretary-General and Chief Economist, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

General Discussion

Balancing Growth with Equity

Author:	ESTHER DUFLO Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Discussant:	KEVIN M. MURPHY Professor, University of Chicago

General Discussion

Achieving Growth Amid Fiscal Imbalances

First Paper Author:	STEPHEN G. CECCHETTI Economic Adviser and Head, Monetary and Economic Department, Bank for International Settlements

Second Paper Authors:	KATHERINE BAICKER Professor, Harvard University
	AMITABH CHANDRA Professor, Harvard University

Discussant:	MAYA MACGUINEAS President, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget

General Discussion

Managing Natural Resources in Developing Economies

Luncheon Address:

PAUL COLLIER
Professor, Oxford University and Director, Centre for the Study of African Economies

Regulating Financial Markets and Institutions to Promote Growth

Author:	ROSS LEVINE Professor, Brown University

Discussant:	RANDY S. KROSZNER Professor, University of Chicago

General Discussion

Aligning International Capital Flows with Growth

Author:	ESWAR S. PRASAD Professor, Cornell University and Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution

Discussant:	SUSAN M. COLLINS Dean, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan

General Discussion

Setting Policy Priorities for Long-Run Growth

Panelists:	BARRY EICHENGREEN Professor,University of California, Berkeley

	CHRISTINE LAGARDE Managing Director, International Monetary Fund

	JEAN-CLAUDE TRICHET President,European Central Bank

General Discussion