Saturday, January 05, 2008

Econopalooza Blogging

I am in New Orleans for the ASSA meetings, or what my wife calls "Econopalooza." I am not on Dartmouth's recruiting committee, so I am soaking up as much as I can from the sessions on neuroeconomics and matching theory, two interesting fields where I've got a lot to learn.

This is my first trip to post-Katrina New Orleans. Compared to the last time I was here, it feels quite empty.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

My wife and I just got back from New Orleans. She'd been pre-Katrina, I hadn't. We felt the tourist areas are (mostly) back, though she says there are plenty of subtle changes (e.g. dress codes are a thing of the past at most upscale restaurants).

However, once you go outside the bubble, things change. We had to make an emergency trip to a mall in Kenner and saw an abandonded, storm-ravaged Macy's that cast a pall over the entire mall. We also went on a tour that included the ninth ward and some of the other hard-it areas. It was humbling. If you have a chance to go on one of those tours, I recommend it. It is something people who don't live in New Orleans need to see.

Anonymous said...

I haven't read many posts in a while about the financial situation of the US. We may be in a recession and markets have been performing poorly. Do you have any words of wisdom?