The History of Economics Society is sponsoring the following sessions at the 2008 ASSA meetings in New Orleans. Jan. 4, 10:15 am HES/AFA What Was/Is Financial Economics? (B2) Presiding: STEPHEN BUSER, Ohio State University GEOFFREY POITRAS, Simon Fraser University, and FRANCK JOVANOVIC, University of Quebec-Montreal--Pioneers of Financial Economics HICHEM BEN-EL-MECHAIEKH and ROBERT DIMAND, Brock University--Louis Bachelier's 1938 Volume on the Calculus of Speculation: Efficient Markets and Mathematical Finance in Bachelier's Later Work PETER BERNSTEIN, Peter L. Bernstein, Inc.--In the Thick of This World: The True Story of Modern Finance PERRY MEHRLING, Barnard College, Columbia University--The Spirit of Finance and the Development of Macroeconomics Jan. 4, 12:30 pm HES Keeping the Faith: The Continuing Engagement of Economics with Religion (B1) Presiding: SPENCER BANZHAF, Georgia State University STEPHEN MEARDON, Bowling Green State University--Whence Commerce Followed the Missionary: Religions Origins of Doctrines of U.S. Trade and Expansion HARRO MAAS, Amsterdam School of Economics--A Hard Battle to Fight: The Dismal Science in Cambridge 1820-1850 DANIELA PARISI, Catholic University of Milan--Economics to the Service of Humankind: The Political Economy of Francesco Vito Discussants: BRAD BATEMAN, Grinnell College PAUL OSLINGTON, University of New South Wales SPENCER BANZHAF, Georgia State University Jan. 5, 10:15 am HES/AFEE Thorstein Veblen at 150: Rethinking a Survivor (B1) Presiding: ANNE MAYHEW, University of Tennessee MATTHEW WILSON, University of Denver--Veblen on Veblen: Social Critic, Evolutionary Scientist, or Both? ROBERT PRASCH, Middlebury College--Thorstein Veblen's Theory of Consumption ERIC HAKE, Eastern Illinois University--Thorstein Veblen's Theory of Business Enterprise, Business Cycles, and Industrial Organization Discussants: MALCOLM RUTHERFORD, University of British Columbia JANET KNOEDLER, Bucknell University Jan. 5, 2:30 pm HES Rawls and the Economists (B3) Presiding: SANDRA PEART, University of Richmond SANDRA PEART, University of Richmond, and DAVID LEVY, George Mason University--The Buchanan-Rawls Correspondence JOHN DAVIS, Marquette University and University of Amsterdam--Rawls and Sen on Deliberative Democracy JOE PERSKY, University of Illinois-Chicago--Rawls' Thin Defense of Property Discussants: STEVEN DURLAUF, University of Wisconsin DAVID COLANDER, Middlebury College Perry Mehrling