Economics Bloggers Forum
Angry Bear Ken Houghton will be a panelist, and other participants in the conference include Mike Shedlock, Mark Thoma, Paul Romer, Alex Tabborak.
Economics Bloggers Forum
8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. CDT
Friday, March 19, 2010
Watch leading economics, technology, and finance bloggers discuss key policy issues and cutting-edge research on topics related to entrepreneurship, innovation, and growth.
Agenda (all Central Times) includees:
9 a.m. Keynote Speaker
David Warsh, author of the online economics column www.economicprincipals.com, will discuss his experiences in and assessment of the nascent business of blogging in the context of the evolving print journalism industry. Warsh was a long-time economics columnist for the Boston Globe where he wrote online weekly for seven years. He is the author of three books, most recently Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations: a story of economic discovery.
9:30 a.m. Panel 1-Great Recession: Impact on America’s Future?
Moderator: Paul Kedrosky
Panelists: Bob McTeer, Megan McArdle, Mark Thoma
1:00 p.m. Persuasion and Norms
Paul Romer
1:30 p.m. Panel 2-Is Growth a Mystery? Haiti, Afghanistan, Africa…
Moderator: Tim Kane
Panelists: Alex Tabarrok, Allison Schrager
2:30 p.m. Panel 3-U.S. Fiscal Mess: How Does It End?
Moderator: Robert Litan
Panelists: Donald Marron, Ryan Avent, Ken Houghton, Mike Shedlock
3:45 p.m. Closing Remarks
Carl Schramm, president and CEO, Kauffman Foundation
“Watch leading economics, technology, and finance bloggers discuss key policy issues and cutting-edge research on topics related to entrepreneurship, innovation, and growth.”
Pardon my being a stickler concerning the over use of descriptive phrases, but what have economics and finance to do with “cutting edge research?” Technology and research would seem to go hand in hand, but we’ve just experienced the results of a decade of economic and financial cutting edge work. I wouldn’t be too free with the word research in that regard.
Kool Beans Ken. Congrats
That’s a MUCH better title than the one in the e-mail I got. (“Can Bloggers Fix the U.S. Budget Deficit?”; I was trying to figure out how to spend 5-7 minutes saying, “No.”)
Let’s see: Mish, Ryan Avent, Don Marron, and me. I know when I would get up and go to the rest room.
(As an aside, Allison Schrager, whose “expertise is in Social Security reform and issues related to private pension accounts” is presenting about economic development. Which is probably good, since I have trouble channeling Bruce on demand.)
Ken:
You don’t have the right touch.
Jack,
Economists are good at studying and analyzing industry. Those in the industry have a narrower focus.
***Economists are good at studying and analyzing industry.***
Not that I disagree, but could you cite an example or two? The name that pops into my mind when I read the phrase “studying and analyzing industry” is W Edwards Deming. But I think that Deming thought of himself as a statistician, not an economist. Wikipedia describes him as a “statistician, professor, author, lecturer, and consultant.” I’m not trying to give you a hard time, just investigating the possibility that economists might actually be useful for something other than filling up othewise empty space and keeping consumption up.
And let us not forget that Deming did not forecast the future, nor dabble in arcane financial models and instruments. Deming’s contribution, which he had to go over to Japan to find an interested corporate ear, was reasonably simple observation and analysis of human interaction within an industrial setting. Maybe it would be maost accurate to describe Deming as an industrial psychologist. His biggest secret prescription to industrial leaders? “Listen to your employees and take their opinions about their daily work into account.”