Economics Corner: The Fear of Fear

From The Economist's View:

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This week's edition of The Economist has the Blanchard Roundtable featuring a Economic Focus column by Olivier Blanchard:

"(Nearly) nothing to fear but fear itself."

There are responses to the column by

• Eswar Prasad:A con game?
• Mark Thoma: Self-fulfilling policy pessimism?
• Tyler Cowen: The economy needs a placebo
• Alberto Alesina: Understand our limits
• Robert Shiller: The confidence multiplier
• Ricardo Caballero: An insurer of last resort

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Olivier Blanchard is the IMF’s chief economist, but I encourage everyone to read at least our own University of Oregon professor Mark Thoma's column.