From time to time people have suggested that I write a book.  I tell them I don't think I have a book in me–a few paragraphs, maybe, but not a whole book.

In wavering back and forth on the question of whether to blog or not to blog, I finally decided to give it a try.  Maybe an informal blog will be a good place for some of those paragraphs. Or, maybe not.  We'll see.

Where I've Been

I'm new to the National Center for Policy Analysis, having joined NCPA in January 2007. Prior to that, I had a 36-year career in the Federal Reserve System, including 14 as President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. As Dallas Fed President, I served all 14 years on the FOMC with Chairman Greenspan and almost 3 years with Chairman Bernanke when he was a Fed Governor. In November 2004, I retired from the Fed to become Chancellor of The Texas A&M University System. I retired from that position a little over two years later.

More biographical information is available on http://www.ncpa.org/, or on my personal web site, http://www.bobmcteer.com/. The latter contains some old speeches, articles, etc. from my past. I assume most of the serious and semi-serious new stuff will go here or elsewhere on the NCPA site. Extreme foolishness will continue to be directed to my personal site.

Where I'm Coming From

NCPA is a natural fit for me at this stage of my career. I've known NCPA's founders, John and Jeanette Goodman, since the early 1990's when the NCPA and the Dallas Fed worked together on joint conferences and seminars. NCPA had good ideas and speakers and we had a good auditorium and food service. We understand comparative advantage. I share NCPA's classical liberal viewpoint on most economic issues, although John assures me there's no litmus test for NCPA fellows. In addition to wanting to play economist again and comment on and influence economic policy, I'm following the lead of  Kinky Friedman when he said he wanted a career that didn't require his actual presence. He found it as an author of mystery books; maybe I'll find it as an author of mysterious paragraphs. As Kinky's spiritual advisor, Billy Joe Shaver, put it in a song: He has it down to one moving part and that moving part is him.  Billy Joe played at my Dallas Fed farewell party. (See photos on http://www.bobmcteer.com/.) Like Billy Joe, I've been to Georgia on a Fast Train; I wasn't born no yesterday.

NCPA is best known for its work on social security and medical issues–John is considered the father of medical savings accounts. I plan to focus on macroeconomic issues–monetary policy, fiscal policy, taxes–and, to some extent, education, especially school choice.  Milton Friedman was my North Star as an economist, and school choice is his great unfinished business.

Anglo-Saxon, or, as I prefer, Cowboy Capitalism, is not perfect, but it serves us pretty well in this new global information economy.  It can be improved by tweaking, however.  Our great vulnerability, however, is our education system, especially below the college level. I became an advocate for school choice as an economist and policymaker.  As Chancellor of a large state university system, I learned just how great the need is, especially in our beloved state of Texas. We have work to do. We have a long way to go and a short time to get there.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 19th, 2007 at 7:59 am . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.