Do we have the capability to eliminate booms and busts in economic activity? The answer in my judgment is no, because there is no tool to change human nature. Too often people are prone to recurring bouts of optimism and pessimism.
June 16, 2021
My dinner guest had just come into the restaurant, with three attractive young women. As he headed towards me, I thought to myself, “Is this a scene from Charlie’s Angels?” It was late 1987 and we were in an upscale Italian restaurant in downtown Boston. People there probably assumed he was a rock star or professional athlete. He wasn’t. But he...