Economics Bloggers Forum 2012

The video from the fourth annual Economics Bloggers Forum is now available, embedded below. Thanks to all who participated. There were a few dozen participants in Kansas City, and a little less than 1,000 unique visitors to the live stream.

At the end of the last panel, Robert Litan asked for an informal show of hands--pessimistic or optimistic for the future of the U.S.'s ability to find new innovations? Most in the room responded in the positive camp. I think responses were impacted by the time of day, i.e. if the poll was asked after the end of the first session, more pessimism would be expressed.

I suspect the panel most relevant to entrepreneurs is the fourth, particularly comments on changes to patent law. The panel does cover the following point, but it's worth mentioning (again) that patents involve only a very small portion of innovations.

 

Bloggers Forum Links:

• Ezra Klein has commentary on the first half of the event.
• Josh Barro offers thoughts on the second panel, which featured John Goodman’s presentation of the Congressional Budget Office’s Long-Term Budget Outlook data (Goodman created the charts using CBO data, though I am a fan of the originals here). Matthew Yglesias comments on this session as well. Later this month, the Kauffman Foundation will be releasing a report on healthcare reform which we will talk about here on growthology.
• The Sketchbook of Tyler Cowen as shown in the welcoming remarks.

 

The list of panel participants is reprinted below for posterity:

Panel discussion – Recovery and Long-Term Growth

Brad DeLong, Grasping Reality
Scott Sumner, TheMoneyIllusion
Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution
Karl Smith, Modeled Behavior

Panel discussion – After the Election, How Do We Fix the Budget?

John Goodman, National Center for Policy Analysis
Ezra Klein, The Washington Post
Donald Marron, www.dmarron.com

Panel discussion – After the Election, What is the Solution to Income Inequality?

Mark Thoma, Economist’s View
Arnold Kling, EconLog
Matt Yglesias, Moneybox

Panel discussion – Intellectual Property: Protecting Rights or Protectionism?

Michael Mandel, Mandel on Innovation and Growth
Tim Lee, Disruptive Economics
Alex Tabarrok, Marginal Revolution