Our students had an intense week. On Thursday and Friday, Simon Johnson (former chief economist of the IMF, now at MIT-Sloan and
baselinescenario.com) taught our students about his work on the importance of institutions as a prime determinant of economic performance. Having spent much of his career looking at crises in Russia, Korea, and Malaysia, he has now moved his research location to crisis central - Washington DC (while still teaching at MIT-Sloan). He gradually led up to the thesis for which he has become famous: that the US is starting to look like an emerging market economy in terms of close ties between the financial and political elite. You can watch a brilliantly funny summary of his views [which he played
for the students] over at
ColbertNation. You can read a less light-hearted summary of his views in "Quiet Coup", detailing how the financial elite has taken over the US government, at the
Atlantic Monthly. I don't often sit in colleagues' classes, but this one I just had to see. Perhaps it's something to do with the fact that nowadays, I get to decide who to invite, but I don't remember enjoying classes this much when I was a student.
Our students had an intense week. On Thursday and Friday, Simon Johnson (former chief economist of the IMF, now at MIT-Sloan and baselinescenario.com) taught our students about his work on the importance of institutions as a prime determinant of economic performance. Having spent much of his career looking at crises in Russia, Korea, and Malaysia, he has now moved his research location to crisis central - Washington DC (while still teaching at MIT-Sloan). He gradually led up to the thesis for which he has become famous: that the US is starting to look like an emerging market economy in terms of close ties between the financial and political elite. You can watch a brilliantly funny summary of his views [which he played 
for the students] over at ColbertNation. You can read a less light-hearted summary of his views in "Quiet Coup", detailing how the financial elite has taken over the US government, at the Atlantic Monthly. I don't often sit in colleagues' classes, but this one I just had to see. Perhaps it's something to do with the fact that nowadays, I get to decide who to invite, but I don't remember enjoying classes this much when I was a student.
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