Fixing Macroeconomics Will Be Really Hard
Someone has to think about these things.
Photographer: David L. Ryan/Globe Staff/Boston Globe via Getty ImagesFive or six years ago, with the hangover from the Great Recession still dominating the national conversation, macroeconomic policy was all the rage. Now, it’s an afterthought, with issues like health care, trade and energy taking center stage. But behind the scenes, macroeconomists have been rethinking the basics of how they approach their discipline.
The Peterson Institute for International Economics, a think tank, recently held a symposium on rethinking macroeconomic policy. The speakers included such luminaries as Ben Bernanke, who was chairman of the Federal Reserve during the crisis, as well as respected macroeconomic policy thinkers such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Olivier Blanchard and Harvard University’s Larry Summers.