Something perhaps of interest to the site’s readership…
This weekend, the Zurich Dalkey Book Festival takes place. This has become something of a sister event to Kilkenomics, which has in recent years hosted leading academic economists such as Deirdre McCloskey and Jeffrey Sachs as well as prominent economic commentators such as Diane Coyle, Simon Kuper and Philippe LeGrain.
This Saturday in Dalkey, I’ll be chairing an event called “Economists: What Are They Good For?“. The three-person panel comprises Dan Ariely, one of the world’s top behavioural economists, and Mark Blyth, author of Austerity – The History of A Dangerous Idea, as well as “the world’s most-quoted living man” PJ O’Rourke.
3 replies on “What is economics good for? Event with Dan Ariely and Mark Blyth”
That is a dynamite line-up — good luck with chairing. I cannot be there, but it is impressive. I am not familiar with Blyth but the other two are notable talents in their (very different) ways.
Somewhat on topic with the Mark Blyth contribution …
Over the last day, I have been interested to see two pointers towards heterodox approaches to the economic crisis being better than what has been done.
The less surprising of the two is Paul Krugman’s comparison of employment in Iceland and Ireland, with Iceland being almost back to the level of employment immediately pre-crisis, and Ireland still being more than ten percent short.
More surprising is that, for all the doom and gloom about what Syriza has done to the Greek economy, employment has been increasing faster this year than it did last year when the euro-stooges were still in government.
From Ekathimerini:
“The Labor Ministry’s Ergani salaried employment database showed that 86,146 new jobs were created last month, up by 26,676 from last year, although job departures also increased. Most sackings (9,124) were in the education sector last month, owing to it being the end of the school year.
In the first five months of the year there was a positive balance of 194,533 jobs, compared with a surplus of 160,946 in the same period of 2014.”
Hope you all had an enlightening night!
The Blind Biddy Intelligence Unit is eagerly awaiting the night’s response to the question; preferably in a single sentence of no more than twelve words!