No, we’re not listed . . . yet.

Here’s what we’ve been reading that’s not listed. Keep mind we’re in 3 different countries, working in 3 different fields:

• Geary Behavioural Economics Blog
• The Irish Economy
• Beat the Press: Dean Baker
• Ezra Klein
• Mosler Economic Policy Center
• Dani Rodrik’s weblog
• NY Times’ BITS: Business Innovation Technology Society
• History of Economics Playground
• Chris Blattman’s Development Blog
• Bayesian Heresy (now also on MTEF)
• PresentationZen
• William Easterly’s Aid Watch
• Stephen Kinsella
• Felix Solomon @ Reuters

Got any others that we should be reading?

I read. A lot. Fiction, Econ, Politics, History. Here’s my summer reading list. BTW, I never understood why people always talk about a summer reading list. I mean, don’t people read all year round? Technically, my reading slows down cause I am drinking/running/ traveling around more. (Enough, semantics Jeanne!)

Here are my must reads this summer:

• The Great Crash, 1929 I’m in the middle of it now, and let me just say I’ve yelled twice already. JK Galbraith must be rolling over in his grave and shaking his head.
• The Myth of the Rational Market Mentioned this book in a previous post. Looks interesting. Impressed when I listened to Justin’s June 11, 2009 talk with Doug Henwood the other day.
• The Bankers Who Ruled the World by Liaquat Ahamed. Been wanting to read this for a while. If I get the chance, I’ll pick it up.

The next 3 books are the ones I really want to read. And it works out since, they’ll all be in print this August.

• Imperial by William Vollmann. Non-fiction on the crossroads of the US-Mexico border. DYING to read all 1300 pages. Alas, I don’t have enough cred to join the William Vollmann Club, but one day, when I become a suburban housewife….
• Anathem by Neal Stephenson. This 960-page monstrosity is finally coming out in paperback. I try not to buy hardcovers (too heavy!) unless I have a good reason (see the next book as an example of a good reason). I l love Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon, and if NS wasn’t old enough to be my father, I would marry him. If you ever get bored, listen to his Google Talk. Did I mention that I love him?
• The Magicians by Lev Grossman. Think Harry Potter meets Narnia. In a perfect world, this book comes with a whiskey and a beer and an entire afternoon in the sun. Full disclosure: Lev’s an acquaintance of mine. It’s a hardcover, but I’m making an exception.

Here’s my complaint in a nutshell: I got upset when I saw that THE Heterodox program (ours, at the New School) wasn’t mentioned and immediately thought: WTF? (and then) What do we do about this? And I started a fury of emails on our dept’s email list. Which led some great debating and brainstorming:

• Facebook profile
• Video
• Conference
• Update the HET website & start an Econ Dept website
• Write a letter to the NY Times to express our discontent

The debate went even further: Was it better to mentor the next generation of economists that can impact the world or do we put in the efforts to make our school, students, & faculty known publicly?

And my first thought: This is great! I love it when we all work together! Here’s what we moved forward on:

• Facebook page: check.
• A number of emails sent to the NY Times: check.
• Next: ?

And then second thoughts creeped in:
Who will take the lead on this? Who will volunteer to coordinate a conference? Who can expand the HET website that we all fell in love in our first semesters? Who will dedicate the human-hours to make this all work out? Where is our army of love?

The Answer: No one and no where. Students think the faculty should initiate it, while the faculty think the opposite. Students and faculty alike are stretched to the max, between classes, working, and writing. No one is motivated or pro-active enough to make change and progress. Instead we’ll all sit back, whinge, & refresh our emails for the 100th time today.

So over 25 emails (not to mention the nasty ones I got off-list), a slew of great ideas, some action, one blog post, and no real action. So maybe it’s raining & our Ivory Tower is dissolving.

PS: Yeah, I know, you’re thinking: What about Jeanne? What the eff does she do? Well, I volunteer for this blog & for the New School Economics Review, & I cause fury on email lists. And not to mention I organized the 2006 ESU Conference. That said, I will volunteer some time for a conference.

Plenty of New Schoolers (current students, alum, and faculty) will be there presenting papers and stuff, which makes this conference almost tolerable.

I love it when EEA is in NY. It means I get to see my friends again. Yo Ben Kahn, next time you better show too. ;)