Financial crisis links

• Matthew Yglesias gives a good run-down of a presentation by economist Michael Mandel on how the dot-com boom wasn't in fact much of a boom to the economy, and that "the cause of the [current] financial crisis is that growth in the recent past has actually been much less robust than people realized". For those interested in getting a new opinion on why we are where we are, its worth a read.
• Author of the new book, Animal Spirits, which I have mentioned a few times now, gave an interesting speech a few weeks ago on the psychology of the economy.
• John Stewart of the Daily Show has been on fire this week, but his attack on CNBC was pure brilliance.
• A new paper argues economics "has been trapped in a sub-optimal equilibrium in which much of its research efforts are not directed towards the most prevalent needs of society" and that economists "have an ethical responsibility to communicate the limitations of their models and the potential misuses of their research". I tend to agree with most of what the paper says, including their general critique of modern macro models.