Robert Shiller Interview on Financial Markets

Gautam Tambay at SlideRule:

I had the recent privilege of speaking with Professor Shiller. I must admit to being a little intimidated before the conversation (it’s not every day that I spend 30 minutes speaking with a Nobel laureate), but my fears were quickly allayed by his warm conversational style. We chatted about the future of education, what causes financial bubbles, the pitfalls of specialization, and why it’s important that smart young grads go to work on Wall Street.

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Inequality Disaster Prevention

NEW HAVEN – Thomas Piketty’s impressive and much-discussed book Capital in the Twenty-First Century has brought considerable attention to the problem of rising economic inequality. But it is not strong on solutions. As Piketty admits, his proposal – a progressive global tax on capital (or wealth) – “would require a very high and no doubt unrealistic level of international cooperation.”

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Buying Insurance Against Climate Change

The third National Climate Assessment report — released on May 6 by the White House, and representing the work of more than 240 scientists — warns us about our hazardous future and offers many good ideas for dealing with it. But a most important point may be lost in the crowd.

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