I am supposed to give a talk for an internal study group at my workplace. I think I'll talk about Robert Shiller's work on macroeconomic derivatives.
But even though I would love to talk about his work, I am not sure the audience would be too forthcoming. It's going to be a post-lunch talk so not that I have much hope...but unless I have some data / numbers / equations, I am going to loose 'em all (yes, pretty much we are all a little on the nerdy side).
Even before I came across Shiller's book, I had worked on pricing of GDP Indexed Bonds (assisted a friend rather). That should hopefully provide a decent middle ground.
Despite several failed forays, it's an exciting area and something to watch out for in the future. Here is an intro that appeared in one of the issues of NBER digest: