Do we have the capability to eliminate booms and busts in economic activity? The answer in my judgment is no, because there is no tool to change human nature. Too often people are prone to recurring bouts of optimism and pessimism.
April 22, 2013
A two-hour college lecture can seem extraordinarily long when you’re in your early 50s, even with a ten-minute break! But there I was sitting in Massachusetts Hall in Harvard Yard –surrounded by over a hundred “kids”- listening to Professor David Dressler talk about the life cycle of scientific breakthroughs. And I had brought this tedium on...