I went to a couple of days of alumni reunion at LSE.
There were some good things, especially a long discussion
with a researcher in macroeconomics. It was somewhat funny, in the presentation
he gave, to see him go to great length to avoid disclosing the actual result of
his research, lest it be seen as a political statement (although when I then
privately asked him that the way he did not answer made me think he had found a
fiscal multiplier much greater than one, he finally admitted it). The political
economic discourse has been so twisted that merely quoting empirical evidence
is seen as intensely political –since most parties reject it (yes, in the EU,
very much including the UK, even parties nominally on the left side push for
austerity).
