Re: [OPE] The role of the individual in history: why did Frederic Mishkin quit the Fed?

From: Gerald Levy (jerry_levy@verizon.net)
Date: Tue Jul 01 2008 - 10:19:48 EDT


> But isn't that girlish? 


Hi Jurriaan:

By which I assume you mean to ask whether it was 'childish' or
'infantile' behavior (I would not advise using the term "girlish": 
it is too easy to mis-interpret your meaning).

My answer is - when put within the context of the culture
and norms of US politics - no.  It's SOP - political apointees 
hardly ever give the real reasons in the US for why they resign
and no one really expects them to.



> But it is surely significant that he rather abruptly quits a longterm position 
> with the Fed, and the press just did not explore that any further. 


That's what we've come to expect from the "free" press in the US.



> Surely the citizens want to know who is coming or going in the Fed, and 
> why that is, surely that matters to them.


Surely that is not surely the case.

I suspect that only a relatively small percentage of the US population 
can tell you who the current chairman of the Federal Reserve is. I 
sometimes ask this in  college economics classes and - usually - one 
person will know the answer .  The appontment of members to the
Board of Governors doesn't get much publicity and I suspect that only
a _very_ small percentage of the US public can tell you the name
of anyone who is on the Board of  Governors other than the Fed Chair.

More people know who David Mishkin (the comic book writer) is.

This may indeed sound crazy from a European perspective but that's 
the way it is here.

In solidarity, Jerry



_______________________________________________
ope mailing list
ope@lists.csuchico.edu
https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/ope


This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Thu Jul 31 2008 - 00:00:07 EDT