Advice to a young, would-be macroeconomist

Focus on economic history and financial institutions. Macroeconomists may be able to learn more from economic history. They certainly need to know more about financial institutions. In Charlie Kindleberger's economic history course, I wrote a paper on the origins of insurance. I argued that insurance contracts were developed not to deal with risk aversion but instead to strengthen the collateral behind loans. For example, marine insurance protected those who lent to finance transoceanic trade. Life insurance protected those who lent money to individuals (the market for life insurance was started in order to serve creditors). If I could go back and tweak my career, I would do more with economic history and financial institutions.

That is from Arnold Kling's book Memoirs of a Would-be Macroeconomist, which has many interesting insights. 

HT: DA & GI.