Kenneth Rogoff is the author of the best-seller, This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly. Rogoff is also a Professor of economics and public policy at Harvard. Rogoff was previously the Chief Economist and Director of Research at the IMF.
All times are EST and PM:
12:20: The best investment idea and theme is children. There is a huge amount of public and private debt, and all different types of debt.
12:21: We are at record levels and this will be a drag on the economy for some time to come. He wants his children to be indebted to his parents and not because of him.
12:22: Very few economists actually focus on debt, it is a ‘fringe field.’ Despite the fact that 3/4 of assets are debt, there is limited studies on it. Worked on studying this topic for over 10 years.
12:25: The S&P fell a total of 56%, housing prices 36%, and real GDP per capita 9.3%.
12:27: Debt usually doubles during a financial crisis, which is what we have done.
12:27: Greece is not exceptional, and many countries are in this situation. Greece has been in default almost every year since their independence.
12:29: The Euro project was a great idea, and the attempt of political union between Germany and France in particular. It will not survive unless action is taken quickly.
12:30: Chess is a good analogy for the world. Most computers can imitate most people at chess. He used to think that he could learn a lot from how people play chess, but this is no longer true.
12:32: People look at diagrams and look at what to do. Rogoff thinks besides raising revenue and increasing education, health should be improved.
12:34: The book only took off a year after the publication.
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