My whereabouts these days: attending the ASSA 2010— I will present an obviously-will-be-top paper (joint with Elena), in the 5th of Jan, within the AEA section (you can find me in the program). Otherwise, first time in Atlanta, looks interesting so far, need to explore some more (by the way, it is rather chilly, but less so than in Chicago). Meawnhile, Ben Bernanke’s just ended talk was pretty convincing, — and his answers to the audience questions even better– in a nutshell: there seems to be a weak link between mishaps of monetary policy and the housing bubble; while Chris Pissarides organized this morning a pretty good session on unemployment patterns/analysis/forecasts in this recession (with Shimer, Davis, Katz, and Pissarides in overall agreement ultimately– except for the usual fight over lowering/raising minimum wages, with Davis and Katz on opposite fronts here–, though the devil’s in the details…).
PS. Oh, and yes…, given that I am in Atlanta: Eva’s unique “Tall Trees in Georgia” (earlier). Enjoy!
lapsus calami, above: "seminars" should have been "talks"
What kind of question is that? :-). Of course they do, provided you pay an attendance fee (if you want to present something, you have to go via the peer reviewing conference procedure, so it'd better be something related to Econ topics :-)). For instance, I've briefly talked at one of the lunch-on seminars to a guy from IBM (though he did some Economics at some point, he said). Next year
I wonder whether they allow physicists to attend as well in such conferences?