Samuelson, Greece, fair trade, and academic journals.

A tribute to Samuelson, from an ex-coworker.

Rodrik uses Greece as a teaching tool for the world economy. Economic globalization, politcal democracy, and the nation-state: pick two. I wonder if the EU will be more careful in the future.

An Economist debate on fair trade. It's an interesting debate, but Bhagwati in particular never fails to impress in my opinion. I think the benefits of free trade are less clearly documented in the media, and public opinion (of developed states, especially) ends up mattering more than it should.

What kinds of articles get published in journals? Empirics seem to be winning the day. I thought people use to think academia was divorced from real life...

Climate change, exchange rates, education, and new frontiers in economics

John Whitehead on climate change. The science hasn't been settled. Professor Whitehead doesn't go into this, but the consequences haven't been settled either.

Chavez is still trying to fix his economy, this time by playing with his fixed exchange rate. The blind lead the blind.

Tyler Cowen makes a partial list of over- and under-explored areas of economics. There are a lot of really interesting under-studied areas of economics.

Ed Glaeser looks at the link between GDP per capita and school enrollment in 1900. Education benefits seem to be very, very persistent.

EIA, map of job losses, new wave of research, and Caterpillar

Env-econ re: BCA vs EIA, OK?

This is a very interesting map of job losses and gains around the country since 2004. It'd be nice if it showed percentage loss/gain rather than net, but it's still illuminating, I think.

Will Google Wave change how research is done?

Caterpillar sees "encouraging signs" of economic recovery. The construction industry, many say, is a pretty good leading indicator.