´óÏó´«Ã½

Terry Stiastny writes: "It's a question even the Queen has been asking. On a visit to the LSE last year, Her Majesty asked the assembled big brains of economics why they didn't see the crisis coming sooner. The big brains then put their heads together to come up with an answer: in a letter several pages long, their conclusion was that it had been "a failure of the collective imagination of many bright people". So what are those imaginations coming up with now in response to the crisis? I have been trying to find some of the economists with the most imaginative and edgy ideas for PM.

For the first in the series, I spoke to Tyler Cowen. His big idea is that the way we think and work is changing because the internet economy gives us so much access to information that is essentially free; what we need to do now is learn how to make sense of it. He's professor of economics at George Mason University in Virginia; and his blog, , has been described as "the best economics blog in the universe". (Not by him, I hasten to add). He writes not only on economics but also on art and restaurants -- that kind of eclectic approach is something he believes is made far easier these days. His latest book is called "Create Your Own Economy". He tells us that the combination of the changing world of the internet economy and the economic crisis created a "perfect storm" -- and we haven't yet found our way out of it. And he goes even further than the British academics who wrote to the Queen, saying economists suffered from a "mass collective delusion" of the intellectuals.

Could you come up with better ideas about the economy? We'd like to hear your views about the ideas you hear during the week, and we'll be discussing them on Thursday."

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Newsvine |
• |
• Reddit
• - What's this?