UM: Paul Krugman

On his blog A Heuristic Viewoint of Life, Raghu Kainkaryam describes the Oct. 2 speech by economist Paul Krugman at UM’s Hill Auditorium: “The talk focused on ‘trade clusters’ – places where certain businesses flourish, sometimes due to historical accidents. He used the interesting example of the Dundee jute industry to highlight this phenomenon. The topic was poignant in light of the failure of a local cluster, the Detroit auto industry. Several audience questions were related to the possibility of Detroit’s revival and the value of protectionist measures to jump-start it. Krugman wasn’t upbeat about the long-term survival of Detroit’s manufacturing hub and tried to end on the hopeful note that Ann Arbor might turn into the center of a new knowledge-based economy.” [Source]