This article presents a summary of our conversation on the past, present and future of the new economic geography, which took place with the help of an interlocutor in San Juan, Puerto Rico in November 2002. Following the intro-duction, we explain what the new economic geography is, and we describe some basic models. The discussion of its various critical aspects is presented subse-quently, and the article concludes with the discussion of future issues and challenges facing the field.