Thursday, February 24, 2011

Conversation and Perspective with Paul McCracken At 95 Yrs. Old, He Still Keeps Regular Office Hours

From a story and interview with Paul McCracken, from the Michigan Ross School of Business:

"Paul McCracken (pictured above at his 95th birthday party) arrived on the University of Michigan campus in 1948, and in 2011 he still keeps regular office hours. He is the Edmund Ezra Day Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Business Administration, Economics, and Public Policy, and at age 95, he is one of the school’s most treasured resources." 

Here's an excerpt: 

You were chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors under President Nixon, and you and the president had a disagreement over price controls. Despite some of his own reservations and your recommendation against them, he enacted them. How did that dynamic work? 

McCracken: Well, that kind of thing can happen. I thought price controls were a bad idea for a very simple reason. You couldn't look back into history and point to a success story. At the time, the president and Congress were involved in a battle in the political domain. Political battles are often more important to them than hard, solid data. 

Interesting Fact (not mentioned in the article): Paul McCracken was interim president of The American Enterprise Institute in 1986, and was succeeded by Chris DeMuth. 

1 Comments:

At 2/24/2011 1:54 PM, Blogger Benjamin Cole said...

Nixon enacted wage and price controls.

People who say things are worse than ever don't remember those days. We are much more a market-oriented economy and society than back then. Tax rates are much lower on the wealthy, though they have creeped on on wage-earners making less than $100k (largely due to Social Security).

I cannot imagine a Republican or Democrat today supporting wage and price controls.

Except for the Bush jr. Administration, we have become much better at running our economy.

 

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