Joe Nocera has been awol for a few weeks; and at least two of us have been concerned. It turns out he's been attending various symposia on the financial crisis, culminating in the big one at the Big Apple's Metropolitan Museum.Here are his closing thoughts:

I cant say that I left the Metropolitan Museum with any more clarity than when I began my little symposia tour. Id heard some good ideas, and cheery news among the dire forecasts. What it did cause me to realize is that all these smart economists and forecasters are looking at the same set of data, and coming to radically different conclusions based on their politics, their temperament and their idiosyncratic reading of history. Just like the rest of us.

Same data? Different conclusions? Based on politics and temperament? Has he been dipping into dotCom again?In any case you can follow his peregrinations and lucubrations here.