The Year 2020 in Three Phrases

Share Button

December 31, 2020 —  Consider the past year through the lenses of three phrases: “witch hunt,” “black swan,” and “exponential.”  Each of these terms is widely applied, but not necessarily in the most useful way.

  1. Witch hunt

Donald Trump has used the words “witch hunt” approximately once every three days on average during his presidency, just counting tweets alone.  It wasn’t just his impeachment trial, which ended with the Senate voting to acquit on February 5 of 2020. He continued during the year to use “witch hunt” to describe accusations that he mis-managed the Covid-19 response (April), inquiries into his tax returns (July), investigation into alleged criminal conduct at the Trump Organization (August), and other challenges. read more

Share Button

Remembering Richard Cooper

Share Button

December 24, 2020 —     Richard N. Cooper (Dick), who passed away Wednesday evening at the age of 86, was always young for his age.  Jim Tobin once told me a story from when Dick was a senior staff economist at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers (1961-63).  He used to bring his bicycle into his office at the Old Executive Office Building.  As I remember the story, President Kennedy remarked that apparently a high school student worked at the CEA!

As recently as a year ago, Dick was still riding his bicycle around Cambridge.  I would join his wonderful (and young!) family on weekend bike rides along the Charles River. read more

Share Button

You don’t miss international cooperation until it’s gone

Share Button

November 30, 2020 — As Joni Mitchell sang, “you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.”   Classroom education was often deemed boring by students and obsolete by tech visionaries.  Then the coronavirus made it difficult or impossible to meet in person.  The result:  We yearn for the irreplaceable in-class experience.

Perhaps the same is true of international economic cooperation.

Share Button