Simon Bowmaker

“I like to wake up late in the morning.” David Card on why he became an academic.

Happy to share the cover of my new book, Fed Reckoning: Conversations on America’s Central Bank (@yalepress, @YPFSatYale, Jan. 2027). A critical examination of the Federal Reserve, told by the policymakers, economists, and observers who know it best.

In The Conversation, Paul Wachtel and I remember Alan Greenspan, who died yesterday at 100. We draw on my interview with him and reveal a more complex and self-aware figure than his public reputation suggested. theconversation.com/how-alan…

"Inflation comes from bad policy, not bad luck." Pleased to see my interview with Kevin Warsh referenced in The Washington Post (@amacker), wapo.st/4vWecNA From my forthcoming book, Fed Reckoning (Yale University Press).

Thanks to @crampell from @BulwarkOnline for including an excerpt from my interview with Kevin Warsh for my forthcoming book, Fed Reckoning (@yalepress, @YPFSatYale): thebulwark.com/p/trump-fed-c…

In today's The Conversation, Paul Wachtel and I examine how communication at the Federal Reserve may evolve under Kevin Warsh's leadership. The article draws on my interview with Warsh for my forthcoming book, Fed Reckoning (Yale University Press): theconversation.com/trump-fe…

Thanks to Nick Timiraos (@NickTimiraos) for citing my interview with Kevin Warsh from my forthcoming book, Fed Reckoning: Conversations on America's Central Bank (@yalepress, @YPFSatYale): wsj.com/politics/policy/how-…

Fun story from Scott Alvarez, ex-Fed general counsel, about Jay Powell when he was at the Treasury. Seems Powell wanted the Fed job all along!

Congratulations to Daron Acemoğlu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson. Here is Daron in 2010 on the changes in how economists do research. Full interview: simonbowmaker.com/s/Acemoglu…

Daron Acemoğlu and David Card on undergraduate vs. graduate research assistants:

“I could teach a macroeconomics course in which I use nothing written after 1980, and it would still be challenging and pertinent.” Tom Sargent speaking in 2010. Is this true today?

Bill Easterly in 2009 on research in development economics. How much has changed?

“In general, if people in a field have bogged down on questions that seem very hard, it is a good idea to ask whether they are really working on the right questions. Often some other question is not only easier to answer but actually more interesting!” Paul Krugman

“Have a very healthy respect for the study of economic history, because that’s the raw material out of which any of your conjectures or testings will come.” Paul Samuelson’s advice to graduate students in 2009.

Where Do (Economists’) Broken Hearts Go? h/t @joshgans and George B. Shepherd (JEP, 1994):

“I promise my students that I will take them and my teaching seriously. Among other things, this means that I will show up—was it Woody Allen who said that 90 percent of success is showing up?” Barry Eichengreen

In the 1970s, PhD programs in economics in the US abandoned the requirement that students take a course in the history of economic thought. Steve Medema’s take in 2009 on the costs to the profession of that decision:

Bob Solow on formalism in economics:

“As a kid, I wanted to be either an astrophysicist or a country music singer. And I spent a shockingly long time figuring out how I could combine them. Being an economist seemed to be the closest you could get.” Austan Goolsbee

Susan Athey speaking in 2010 about balancing her personal and professional lives: