Thursday, November 27, 2014

Celebrity economists: The sages of the pampas

A tabloid celebrity with an actress

ECONOMICS is not a profession for the publicity-hungry—except in Argentina. Consider Tomás Bulat, who holds three degrees in the subject, hosts a weekly television show about it and has written two best-selling books on it. He boasts over 179,000 followers on Twitter. In comparison, Ricardo Darín, arguably Argentina’s most famous actor, has only 41,000; Andrés Calamaro, a well-known rock star, has 34,000. At a recent lunch in the seaside city of Mar del Plata, your correspondent was intrigued to see waiters and diners fawn over Mr Bulat. A neighbouring table invited him to share their calamari and a particularly bold waitress hugged him and took his photograph to show her friends.Other economists are equally feted. Martín Lousteau, a former economy minister and current congressman, has 162,000 Twitter followers and is frequently hounded for autographs. Martín Redrado, a former head of the central bank who now runs a consultancy, has 127,000 Twitter followers. Both have dated a series of stars and appear almost as frequently in tabloids as in the financial press. A few years ago, Mr Lousteau...



from The Economist: Finance and economics http://ift.tt/1HIqL1Q

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