The History of Economics Society met last month at Duke University. Mauro Boianovsky, of the Universidade de Brasilia, presided.

Bradford DeLong, of the University of California at Berkeley, gave one plenary address (“The Confidence Fairy in Historical Perspective”); Guillermo Calvo, of Columbia University, a second (“Macroeconomics in the Times of Crisis”); and Craufurd Goodwin, of Duke, a third (“Perceptions of the [In]stability of Consumer Preferences: A Case Study of the Interaction among Economic Policy, Theory, and World Events”).  Deep currents flowed throughout the meetings, such that Economic Principals opened a new project file.  But that was as far as he got last week.

As Adam Smith observed long ago,

A man commonly saunters a little when turning his hand from one sort of employment to another. When he first begins the new work he is seldom very keen and hearty; his mind, as they say, does not go to it, and for some time he rather trifles than applies to good purpose.

Nothing discombobulates Economic Principals more than weekend travel.  Thus after a few failed attempts to bring matters into focus, EP sauntered away for a week in the North Woods. Back next week.