Following are excerpts from a symposium on the economic crisis presented by The New York Review of Books and PEN World Voices at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on April 30...

In Hamlet, Shakespeare wrote “Life is but a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”...

With the economy showing signs of recovery, fiscally conservative economists and Republican lawmakers are suggesting that the large unspent portion of the nearly $800 billion stimulus fund should be redirected to slash this year's nearly $2 trillion annual deficit...

Some of the world’s highest-profile economists and investors are warning that inflation may be on its way back and could hit double figures in the next five years...