Peter Diamond, 2010 Nobel Prize in Economics recipient and MIT professor, spoke to Beaver students during an upper school Tuesday Form. He discussed the U.S. recession, unemployment, and debt.
Diamond talked about the effect of high unemployment on young people. When someone right out of college cannot find work, it not only affects his or her life at that moment, but also has an impact on future earnings. When that person finally does gain employment, his or her pay will be lower than someone who had been working because of lack of experience.
Speaking about the book This Time is Different by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, which focuses on the similarities between financial crises throughout history, students were asked to be wary when someone says “This time it will be different” in regards to an economic “bubble” bursting.
During the question and answer session, a student asked Diamond about his thoughts on the health care situation in the U.S. He said that the country needs to come to two understandings: a consensus on a better system and a way to incentivize hospitals, health care workers, and insurers to buy in to the new system. He also says that the same understandings are need to reform the education system.
At the end of his remarks, Diamond also shared what it was like in the aftermath of winning the Nobel Prize. He showed pictures of and discussed his meeting with President Obama in the Oval Office of the White House and the award presentation ceremony in Sweden.