Coming out in paperback, March 2010, for only $20. You can pre-order now.
Mostly it's Black's views on business cycles, growth, and equilibrium. It's not an easy book for most people to read, as Black just comes out and states what he thinks, without much in the way of trappings or preliminaries or traditional narrative structure. There are also no models, just strings of statements about models. That said, virtually every sentence has substance. It is one of my favorite books in economics and it still contains many unmined insights. I'm tempted to order an extra copy, just for the pleasure of buying it.
” I’m tempted to order an extra copy, just for the pleasure of buying it.”
Pretty bizarre statement, no?
HC
When I was in between jobs I had a “great idea” that involved Fischer Black’s view of interest rate as options, and a neoclassical model of a capital-using economy. At this point though it’s like trying to explain a really neat dream you had to somebody else and it sounds dumb in the daylight.
Fischer Black is the only economist of note over the last 50 years (if not longer). read Bradford Cornell’s “The fundamental nature of recessions: a contracting and restructuring perspective” to get a flavor of how insightful Black was.
Paul
I realize that Tyler gets a rash every time anyone mentions Hayek, but based solely on Cornell’s article I don’t see how Black’s theory of cycles is any different from Hayek’s. See especially Hayek’s “Economics and Knowledge” from 1936. Hayek’s main point was that the production of capital goods must coordinate with the demand for the consumers goods which the capital goods are intended to make. Savings and prices do the coordinating.
I realize that Tyler gets a rash every time anyone mentions Hayek, but based solely on Cornell’s article I don’t see how Black’s theory of cycles is any different from Hayek’s. See especially Hayek’s “Economics and Knowledge” from 1936. Hayek’s main point was that the production of capital goods must coordinate with the demand for the consumers goods which the capital goods are intended to make. Savings and prices do the coordinating.
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