Browse by Tags

Global Economic Watch » All Tags » yale (RSS)

KnowNOW!

Global Economic Watch

Syndication

Recent Posts

Tags

View more

Other Useful Blogs

Archives

  • Whole Foods Founder Mackey on 'Conscious Capitalism'

    John Mackey founded Whole Foods Market , and has been CEO and Chairman of the Board for nearly 30 years. He's a self-described libertarian and believer in free markets. But, he says, "Capitalism is not loved." And he suggests, with rising anti-corporate sentiment, that it is time for a "new business paradigm." In this talk at Yale University , he describes a vision for capitalism moving forward--something he calls "conscious capitalism."

  • Behavioral Finance and the Global Economic Crisis

    Nicholas Barberis teaches at Yale's School of Management and studies the psychology behind pricing--or why we place the value we do on financial assets. So when he looks at the root causes of the global financial crisis, he is drawn to the behavior of consumers, investors, and bankers, and the cognitive psychology behind that behavior. Barberis does not fall into the camp of economists who believe that these are always "rational agents." In this talk before Yale alumni, he explains behavioral finance, and how irrational decision-making factored in to the economic meltdown (skip to 4 minutes in for the start of the talk):

  • Yale Economists on the Financial Crisis and the Depression Threat

    Robert Shiller writes in a Bloomberg commentary today that the US is in danger of facing another Great Depression. And while he lauds the Obama Administration for "stronger efforts to date" than during the Depression, he calls for more stimulus spending: In the face of a similar Depression-era psychology today, we are in need of massive pump-priming again. We appear to be in a much better situation due to the stronger efforts to date. Still, there is a danger that, because of a combination of faulty economic theory and inadequate appreciation of human psychology, as well as deep public anger, we will not continue with such stimulus on a high enough level. We desperately need to be persistent, keeping our government response adequate for the problem at hand on a sufficient scale and for sufficient time. Earlier this week, Shiller discussed the financial crisis and the current recession as compared to the Great Depression with his fellow Yale economists John Geanakoplos and Richard Levin (also president of Yale). They also compared the current government response to the government efforts during the Depression, and deficits and stimulus spending (Levin calls World War II the stimulus package for the Depression) from both periods. Some of the conversation is a repeat of a February panel in which these three economists were all participants. If you have already viewed that discussion (available here ), you can skip to 15 minutes in on this video (which has the added benefit of skipping most of the Yale back-patting, if that is unappealing for any reason). You can read Shiller's Bllomberg commentary here.

  • Yale Economists Discuss the Crisis

    Shortly after President Obama signed the $787 billion dollar economic recovery act, a panel of Yale professors discussed the state of the economy at Yale Law School in New Haven, CT. John Geanakoplos , William Nordhaus , and Robert Shiller --all professors in the Econ department at Yale--joined Yale Law deputy dean Jonathan Macey . The discussion, moderated by Yale president Richard Levin --himself a former professor of economics at Yale--covered the severity of the current recession, the root causes of the global economic crisis, and the specific problems of the banking system. The panel seemed to be in agreement twhen it came to fiscal stimulus (they think we need it, and we might need more than what the Obama plan provides) and the banks (we can't allow them to fail). And while there is a lot of talk of gloom, the panelists for the most part) do not give in to the gloom themselves. And they do provide prescriptions. Of course, you may or may not agree with them. As always, share your thoughts by clicking on comments below. Here's the full discussion: