The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City is sponsoring its big economic symposium in Jackson Hole at the end of this week and I’ve not been invited. There’s no skiing this time of year but I’d still love to be there. It’s a tough ticket with only about 100 invites going out to the Fed members and other “prominent central bankers, finance ministers, academics, and financial market participants from around the world.” Obviously, I would never expect to be in this crowd and I have no idea what really goes on there. But my impression is that it’s groupthink at its worst. One economist debating with another economist might lead to an economics lesson, but I wonder what it means for the rest of us. For example, Chairman Bernanke’s Friday morning lecture is entitled “Housing and Monetary Policy” and while I am sure the past few weeks have provided a few good revisions to the final draft, what will it do? Who will hear it but a bunch of the same people who have contributed to the mess that we now have?