Economix Blog: Podcast: Econometrics, Bailouts, Jobs and Mankiw

The economics profession has been blamed for failing to predict the global financial crisis, much less prepare for it or resolve it.

Thomas J. Sargent and Christopher A. Sims, who are to receive the Nobel prize in economics in Stockholm on Dec. 10, have been thrust into the spotlight at a very awkward time.

In a discussion with David Gillen on the new Weekend Business podcast, I explain how the two men rose to their current eminence and what their contribution to economics has been.

As I write in an article on the cover of Sunday Business, neither economist favors giving simple prescriptive advice about complex problems. But both have influenced the thinking of policy makers in governments and the central banks, and they have helped advance the technical ability of econometricians. They’ve also been embraced by conservatives, although they say they are actually lifelong Democrats.

In a separate conversation, Gretchen Morgenson discusses new information about bank bailouts during the financial crisis, the subject of a report by Bloomberg News, and of her column in Sunday Business.

Catherine Rampell talks about a drop in the unemployment rate in the United States, from 9.0 to 8.6 percent in October. Much of the reduction appears to be a result of people leaving the labor force, although 120,000 new jobs were created during the month.

And Greg Mankiw, the Harvard economist, writes about being a target of an Occupy demonstration. Students walked out of his lecture class, protesting what they considered a conservative bias in his teaching. He explains his thinking about economics and about the protest, and invites those students who are still missing to return.

You can find specific segments of the podcast at these junctures: Catherine Rampell on the jobs report (29:25); news headlines (25:33); Jeff Sommer and David Gillen on the Nobel laureates (22:26); Gretchen Morgenson on bank bailouts (12:27); Greg Mankiw on the Occupy movement (6:44); the week ahead (1:18).

As articles discussed in the podcast are published during the weekend, links will be added to this post.

You can download the program by subscribing from The New York Times’s podcast page or directly from iTunes.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=5c3037985b0e5e3cb65c72e1e3da391c