A shameless plug for economic history...

In a recent post, Rob brought an interview with Paul Samuelson to our attention. Part 2 of the interview is now posted and it ended with an interesting question for students entering graduate study in Economics:

Conor Clarke: "Very last thing. What would you say to someone starting graduate study in economics? ... Where does it go from here and how does the current crisis change it?"

Paul Samuelson: "Well, I'd say, and this is probably a change from what I would have said when I was younger: Have a very healthy respect for the study of economic history, because that's the raw material out of which any of your conjectures or testings will come. "