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I enjoyed reading your IMF essay and the related article in the 15-21 April Economist.

One issue which interests me considerably is the relation of global economic prosperity to the purported importance of the "new economies." Specifically, the Economist article argued that innovations in telecommunications are "greater and more far-reaching" than the "greatest breakthroughs of the past two centuries."

Do you agree? If so, what specifically do you see as these "telecommunications innovations" and why are they so ground breaking?

I appreciate your busy schedule, but would be grateful for your consideration.

-- Robert Hopkins (RobertSHopkins@mail.mke.etn.com), April 25, 2000

Answers

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Hard questions...

I would say that my thoughts on the "new economy" are still somewhat contradictory and undeveloped.

If you want to, take a look at: http://econ161.berkeley.edu/OpEd/virtual/new_economy_master.html. It's my attempt to pull together what I've written about the "new economy"...

-- Brad DeLong (delong@econ.berkeley.edu), April 25, 2000.