A Very Interesting Interview of Uzawa

Here are some interesting bits:

On Joan Robinson and James Meade:

We had the first Far Eastern Meeting of the Econometric Society, in the summer
of 1971 or thereabout, inviting James Meade, Michael Bruno, and Joe Stiglitz
from abroad. After the meetings were over, I organized a three-day seminar
meeting at the gracious villa of the Development Bank of Japan in Hakone. James
Meade gave an opening lecture, really a beautiful lecture, typical of him. Then
Joe Stiglitz asked him, “What Joan Robinson would say if she were here?” Meade
was quite upset and replied, with a stern voice. “I have not come this far to
hear that name!”

On Friedman and Lloyd Metzler

No, before that. When I had an offer from the University of Chicago, I was very
concerned with [Milton] Friedman. I did not want to do anything with Milton
Friedman. But Lloyd Metzler was very insistent that I come to Chicago. One day,
Metzler came to Stanford to urge me to accept the offer from Chicago. We had
lunch together and I asked him how things were done in Chicago. I asked him the
most important thing to me, that is, what were the relations between him and
Milton Friedman. Metzler said “Oh, I am getting along with Milton very well,
because I don’t pay any attention to what he says.” That was a classic statement
typical of Metzler. A few year before that, about four years before that,
Metzler suffered from a serious disease, a brain tumor, and he had a major
operation. That was the reason why I was invited to come to Chicago, because he
was the House Keynesian. So, I was invited to come to Chicago to work with him.

Here's the link.

I am back!!!!

I know, it has been a while. Just realize that the last post I have here is back in March, almost half a year ago.

In this WSJ piece, apparently some Basel Committe economists have done regression work which shows that imposing higher capital standard on banks will bring in long-term benefits which outweigh short term costs....

Since I am not an econometric expert here, I would not quibble with their results. But then again at least I know this: imposing higher K-standard would likely raise the bar for entrants in the banking industry. And this in turn means the banking sector would be less competitive than it would have been if the K-requirment has not been lifted. Now that has got to be costs to the economy as a result of this reduction in competitiveness in the economy, and I am not sure that this costs of the unintended consequence of an apparently "beneficial" policy have been taken into account by the researchers.

A Harvard Undergraduate Cracked the Secret Code behind the Mortgage Backed CDO

The story is in WSJ's blog, details here.

Why Economists Have So Little to Say About the Crisis

That's a topic Nobel Laureate Jim Buchanan recently talked about at a lecture at U of Richmond.

The Paul Krugman Test

"My attitude is this: if you are getting attacked by Krugman, you must be doing something right. "

That is one of very interesting lines from this excellent interview with Chicago's Gene Fama.