One of my favorite classes this semester is Applied Macroeconomics, taught by Professors Robert Rigobon and Tavneet Suri. For that class, I was just reading Paul Kurgman's article "How Fast Can the U.S. Economy Grow? Not as fast as 'new economy' pundits would like to think."
The article proposes that the idea of international trade, investment, and new technology making it possible for growth rates to grow exponentially is silly. Given that the article was written in 1997, and given the current state of the economy, it's easy to say eleven years later, that of course it is true. There are limits to growth. But the article also brings up the issue of "sustainable growth," which Professor John Sterman addressed two weeks ago in his Strategies for Sustainable Business lecture.
Professor Sterman is a great lecturer. He is clear, dynamic, knowledgeable, passionate... Officially, he is the Jay W. Forrester Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Director of MIT's System Dynamics Group but well known among the students for teaching System Dynamics and leading the Beer Game, which I wrote about last year. If you find yourself at Sloan you should take his classes.
Two weeks ago we modeled population growth, climate change, and technological innovation within a larger social and economic system. It was fascinating, and horrifying.
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