Books: Inside the Economist's Mind (I.T.E.M.) and Getting It Wrong

This Blog hosts discussion of issues relevant to the book, Inside the Economist's Mind, coedited by Nobel Laureate Paul A. Samuelson and William A. Barnett, published by Wiley/Blackwell, and the newer book by William A. Barnett, Getting It Wrong, published by MIT Press.


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William A. Barnett is Oswald Distinguished Professor of Macroeconomics at the University of Kansas and Director of the Center for Financial Stability in New York City. He was previously Research Economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, DC; Stuart Centennial Professor of Economics at the University of Texas at Austin; and Professor of Economics at Washington University in St. Louis. William Barnett has been a leading researcher in macroeconomics and econometrics. He is one of the pioneers in the study of chaos and nonlinearity in socioeconomic contexts, as well as a major figure in the study of the aggregation problem. He is Editor of the Emerald Press monograph series International Symposia in Economic Theory and Econometrics, and Editor of the journal Macroeconomic Dynamics, published by Cambridge University Press. He received his B.S. degree from M.I.T., his M.B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University. He has published 20 books (as either author or editor) and over 140 articles in professional journals. His research has been published in 7 languages.



COEDITOR: PAUL A. SAMUELSON

The book, Inside the Economist's Mind, is coedited by Paul A. Samuelson and William A. Barnett. Although this Blog is hosted solely by the latter coeditor, the following is the information in the book's front matter about Paul Samuelson:

Paul A. Samuelson was the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Economics. He is Professor Emeritus of Economics and Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute Professor is the highest rank awarded by MIT. His landmark 1947 book, Foundations of Economic Analysis, based upon his Ph.D. dissertation at Harvard University, established him as "the economists' economist" by raising the standards of the entire profession. Paul Samuelson's classic textbook, Economics, first published in 1948, is among the most successful textbooks ever published in the field. The book's 16 editions have sold over four million copies and have been translated into 41 languages. He received his B.A. degree from the University of Chicago and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. As one of the profession's most productive scholars for over a half-century, he remains an intellectual force of towering stature.

Friday, March 16, 2007

Dole Institute of Politics

There will be a reception and book signing for the book, Samuelson and Barnett, Inside the Economist's Mind, at the Dole Institute of Politics on March 27, 2007. If you wish to attend and have not received an invitation, you can make the arrangements to attend easily.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Challenge Magazine

A full length book review of ITEM is forthcoming in the May-June 2007 issue of Challenge: the Magazine of Economic Affairs. The author of the review is Dr. Stephen Kinsella on the faculty at the Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick, Ireland. The following interesting statements are contained within the review:

"Inside the Economist’s Mind: Conversations with Eminent Economists (ITEM) will prove an invaluable resource for those wishing to understand the greats and their work. . . Readers find eccentric and irascible characters behind some of the major innovations in economic science, and that is the draw to the book."

Of particular interest is the conclusion to the book review:

"Inside the Economist’s Mind is a very rare thing—an economic page-turner, like Heilbroner’s The Worldly Philosophers, Foley’s Adam’s Fallacy, and Levitt and Dubner’s Freakonomics. The personalities behind the frontiers of economic research make for compelling reading. I can’t recommend it enough."

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Bloomberg Markets Magazine

The April 2007 issue of Bloomberg Markets magazine highlighted the book, ITEM, in its "Bookmarks" section on p. 24. In addition to providing three of the most interesting of the quotations from the book, the magazine included the following statement: "In this collection of interviews, 16 eminent economists speak candidly on everything from the IQ of U.S. presidents to the herd-like behavior in their profession."

With over 260,000 Bloomberg Professional service subscribers, Bloomberg Markets is now the largest financial monthly magazine in the world. The magazine is carried by the Barnes & Noble and the Borders bookstore chains in the US.