Are Macroeconomists Making Progress?

Some thoughts after attending the 4th Meeting of the Nobel Laureates in Economics:

Are Macroeconomists Making Progress?

Update: I should note that I originally ended the column on a slightly more positive note, but then cut this part to make the word limit (the conference is intended to bring young economists together with the Nobel laureates so that the young economists can benefit from their wisdom):

But I do have hope. The young economists I talked to are eager to move things forward, and refreshingly free of the theoretical and ideological divides that exist in the older generation of economists. I have little faith that the older generation will ever acknowledge the models they spent their lives building are fundamentally flawed. But the disappointment I felt listening to the older and supposedly wiser economists at the conference give conflicting advice based upon failed models was absent in these conversations with the next generation. Some day they too will dig in their heels and defend their lives’ work against challenges, but for now it's up to them to forge a new way forward.