Nobel economist Paul Krugman wrote in the 6 September 2009 New York Times Magazine, How Did Economists Get it So Wrong?. It is a discussion of the re-emergence of Keynesian macroeconomics.

On 4 August 2009, SteveG kindly posted Krugman Lectures on the Depression containing URLs to three audio lectures (mp3) plus slides, which I emailed to him, given by Krugman at the London School of Economics (LSE) this summer. I am reposting those links here for your convenience.

Part I--The Sum of All Fears
Audio: http://tinyurl.com/kj43gf
Slides (pdf): http://tinyurl.com/n6gevo

Part II--The Eschatology of Lost Decades
Audio:  http://tinyurl.com/mjvq65
Slides (pdf):  http://tinyurl.com/lcavs7

Part III--The Night They Reread Minsky
Audio:  http://tinyurl.com/m4hww2
Slides (pdf):  http://tinyurl.com/m92wpj

The New York Times Magazine article covers some of the material in the LSE lectures; therefore for those of you who don’t have the time, the technology, or the inclination to listen to the 3+ hours of lecture,  you might wish to read the article and decide afterward whether you want the more thorough analysis.

In the interest of full disclosure, SteveG is not as impressed as I am with Krugman nor with Paul Samuelson; please see SteveG’s full post on the Krugman lectures plus SteveG’s additional post, How Milton Friedman Fooled the Economists, for his opinion.

On 12 August 2009, my friend and Sloan School classmate, Professor Bruce Kogut, was interviewed by John Oliver (Daily Show) in its segment on Teaching Ethics at Business Schools and on the popularity of the Harvard Business School MBA Ethics Oath.

I think you will find this six minute video engaging.

Bruce Kogut teaches Leadership and Ethics at Columbia University Business School.

My thanks to my daughter and to Bruce for alerting me to this video.

This post has noting to do with politics or economics (or does it?).

It does have an important message about life.

If my daughter, Tatiana, were a psychotherapist rather than an economist, this would be her style of psychotherapy.

Click here for Bob Newhart-Psychotherapy.

On 17 June 2009, Coner Clarke (The Atlantic) posted a two-part interview with famed 1970 Nobel economist, Paul Samuelson.  Samuelson is one of the people that brought Keynesian economics to US undergraduates for a number of decades through the many editions of his introductory text, Economics.  Furthermore, he led the march to mathematical economics, initially through his Harvard PhD dissertation (published in 1947 as a book), Foundations of Economic Analysis.

At 94, he remains as sharp, witty, sarcastic, and (at times) obscure as when I took his doctoral course in 1979.

Here are the links to Part 1 and Part 2 of the interview.

He believes that many of today’s “younger” economists lost sight of Keynes’s intuitions until the current financial crisis brought them to the fore.

Zasloff is a UCLA Law Professor who contributes to the public policy blog, SameFacts (The Reality-Based Community).

On 23 June 2009, Zasloff posted My love note to the DSCC (Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee). It makes a lot of sense to me and to friends to whom I forwarded it.  Zasloff’s post says, in part,

“This morning I got an e-mail from Claire McCaskill (theoretically), asking for my contribution to the DSCC. It was pretty boilerplate, but on health care, it was truly nauseating, refusing to endorse anything but “health care choices”.

“I don’t know whether anyone reads the responses, but here is what I wrote back:

‘I have been a contributor to the DSCC for years, but until and unless the Democratic Caucus strongly endorses an effective public option in health care reform, the DSCC will never again see a penny of my money. I see no reason to give to a caucus that consistently subverts the will of the overwhelming majority of Americans who want a strong public option. I hope very much that I shall be able to contribute to the DSCC in the future, and am waiting for the Caucus’ actions in this regard.’

“… Every single fundraising e-mail and call over the next several weeks should be given this response. No money unless there is a strong public option. Period.

“A fundraiser called me last night, and I told him the same thing. No public option, no money. End of story.

“Every Democratic incumbent that contacts you should get the same line.

“Every single call. Every single time.”

Humorist John Hodgman roasts our ‘nerd president’ at the Radio and TV Correspondents’ Dinner.

Peter Bernstein’s death was reported today (8 June 2009) in Bloomberg, Pension and Investments, and The New York Times. He was a wonderful explainer and promulgator of Modern Finance Theory, Efficient Markets, and the Theory of Risk. In addition, he was the founder of the Journal of Portfolio Management.

If you would like to read lucid (and non-mathematical) descriptions of the above topics, I strongly recommend Bernstein’s “Capital Ideas” and his “Against the Gods-The Remarkable Story of Risk.” I don’t think you will be disappointed.

In the 8 June 2009 New York Times article, Obama’s Economic Circle Keeps Tensions High, Jackie Calmes reports on some of the behind-the-scenes trusts and parries between Lawrence Summer and Christina Romer (among others).

Manalanobis translates a segment of a Myron Scholes interview with an Austrian newspaper in which Scholes comments on ‘the best way to reduce risk.’

Scholes is a co-developer of the Black-Scholes-Merton option pricing formula. Scholes and Merton won a Nobel in part for their work on options; Black had died before the Nobel was awarded. Scholes was part of Meriwether’s arbitrage group at Salomon Brothers, and later a partner of Long Term Capital Management.

I apologize in advance for subjecting you to this bit of humor.

Do you want a little more Scholes? Deborah Solomon interviewed him in the 17 May 2009 issue of the New York Times Magazine.

Nota bene: You will NOT learn anything about option pricing from either of the above links.

The Master of Money by Michael Lewis in the June 2009 issue of The New Republic is an informative review of The Snowball-Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder.