Can an economist be a celebrity? Usually not.
There are a few exceptions and Carmen Reinhart is one. Certainly after her book “This Time Is Different,” came out in 2009.
“Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff came as close to celebrity status as an economist can ever come,” writes professor Randall Wray.
Why the unusual attention? The answer is what they got right in the punchline of their book: Although contemporaries may say this time is different, financial crises follow historical patterns. Reinhart and her co-author Kenneth Rogoff analyze these patterns over 800 years and find when crisis hits it’s not much different from the last time around.
It's not that all countries are the same, you don't really get this nice little recipe.
