Sunday, December 22, 2019

Simon Constable - Former Fed Chief Found Economists “Useless,” New Book Says

“During my lifetime, the subject has become much more mathematical, much more abstract, and much more useless in terms of contributing to effective public policy,” Volcker told Bowmaker in an interview for the book.

Forbes. 

4 comments:

Matt Franko said...

Yo HE was an Art Degree Economist:

"Volcker's undergraduate education was at Princeton University; he graduated summa cum laude in 1949 from the policy-oriented Woodrow Wilson School. In his senior thesis, Volcker criticized the Federal Reserve's post-WWII policies for failing to curb inflationary pressures.[9] Following a summer as a research assistant at the New York Fed, he moved to Harvard University to earn an M.A. in political economy from its Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and Graduate School of Public Administration. He worked a second summer as a New York Fed research assistant before graduating in 1951. After Harvard, Volcker attended the London School of Economics from 1951 to 1952"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Volcker

BA from Princeton and MA from Harvard then to LSE...

André said...

Many traders in wall street (and around the world) undergraduate or graduate in courses like Applied Mathematics, Engineering, Physics, Computer Science and Statistics.

I don't think that there are realiable general statistics on that, but I would bet that at least some 40% of traders have those kinds of backgrounds.

They all fully embrace the mainstream theories and narratives.

It is not a graduation course problem.

Matt Franko said...

I You have to look at the ones that dont not the ones that do ... ie discrimination...

And all the people in the policy positions of authority have the Art Degree training... like Volcker here...

Now Powell is in there first non Art Degree economist in my life he’s a Art Degree lawyer... let’s see how this goes... maybe some small improvement... though still not ideal...

S400 said...

”I You have to look at the ones that dont not the ones that do”

Correlation is not causation. That is basic stuff that Matt Franko can’t grasp.