ATLANTA — Even in calm times, the annual meeting of the Allied Social Science Association is never boring. This year it was downright absorbing.

   More than any time in my memory, the economics profession was coming to grips with enormous changes: the buzzsaw of new technologies now summarized as “fintech” (everthing from Bitcoin to the demise of cash); big data and machine learning; the growing market power of big firms; the likely fracture of the global trading system along financial and technological lines; and, of course, the future of work.

It made no sense to pull away from the proceedings in order to write. Better to put these issues on the docket for later in 2019. So expect an eventful, if not necessarily happy, New Year. Back next week.