Economists suffer from a deep psychological disorder that I call 'physics envy'. We wish that 99 percent of economic behavior could be captured by three simple laws of nature. In fact, economists have 99 laws that capture 3 percent of behavior. Economics is a uniquely human endeavor.

My mother died of lung cancer last year. I felt helpless. As an economist, I thought, What can I do?

Financial crises are an unfortunate but necessary consequence of modern capitalism.

Many of us like to think of financial economics as a science, but complex events like the financial crisis suggest that this conceit may be more wishful thinking than reality.

Maybe we should teach schoolchildren probability theory and investment risk management.

Labor is getting more expensive and technology is getting cheaper.

Great investors need to have the right combination of intuition, business sense and investment talent.