Mark Perry was my research assistant for the academic year 1987-1988 (or was it 1988-1989? – help me out here, Mark). I wish that I could claim to be responsible for even a smidgen of his insight, intelligence, and learning, but, alas, honesty compels me to confess that I have had nothing to do with his excellence on any of these fronts.
This post of Mark’s is a must-read; it’s on trade. (It does remind me of this July 2007 blog-post by me – one that Brad DeLong graciously applauded. I likely picked up this idea in conversation with Mark, long ago, over lunch.)
[BTW, I will soon offer Brad a revised bet, along the lines of what I now better understand to be his core contention regarding John Tierney’s claims: the future of energy prices. (I suspect that, a few days back, I too quickly jumped to the conclusion that Brad was pessimistic not only about the future of energy supplies, but, rather, about the supplies of resources more generally.)
But having just spent 8.5 hours driving back to Fairfax, VA, from Clemson, SC, where I attended the burial and funeral of one of my dearest friends, Pinky Macaulay, I will wait a day or two before formulating my wager and presenting it formally to Brad.
I take this opportunity to add that should I ever find the character and wisdom to be even half as upstanding and as wise and as generous and as gracious and as civilized as were the late Hugh and Pinky Macaulay, I will die a self-satisfied man.]
