The London School of Economics was once so popular among young American scholars that British students used to joke that LSE stood for "Let's See Europe". A distinguished sightseer, Paul Krugman, returned to the lse on June 8th to give the annual Lionel Robbins memorial lectures. Mr Krugman, who gave the Rob-bins lectures 21 years ago, tried to answer two big questions in the course of his three talks. Why did economists not foresee calamity? And how will the world economy climb out of recession?rnThe immediate cause of the crisis, "the mother of all global housing bubbles", was spotted by many economists. That house prices had risen too far was obvious, even if policymakers had seemed less sure.
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