Charlie Brown turned 65 last year. How time flies! Last we saw him, he was still trying to kick
that football, and Lucy was still up to her usual tricks. Where has he been all these years?
Charlie:
You would never guess, I went to college and stayed there; actually… I always
knew I could make it, I just had to wait until my grades would improve as I
knew they would… eventually. I really
wanted to get away from Lucy; actually, I worried too much about that, but it
turned out alright.
Me:
How so?
Charlie: Lucy decided she was going to West Point, and
there is no way they would have taken me there even if I had applied.
Me:
How did she do?
Charlie:
Well, she retired last year, as a two star general; she was the guest of honor
at the Army-Navy game; that was nice of them, although I understand they had a
hard time getting her off the field; they had given her the game ball and ...
Me:
So what did you do after college?
Charlie: Well I taught economics at Columbia for
thirty years. I wrote a few research papers
with Linus (he was at Berkeley); he did the math part and I did the
editing. And then I went to the Fed in
Washington.
Me:
Really? So what do you make of it all, I mean, the taper?
Charlie:
Gosh, I don’t know, I am in research, not policy-making. In any case, and as you know, the chairman
never promised to end the taper in September...
Me:
But if the CEO of Goldman Sachs says on the morning of the FOMC decision that
he expects a September taper, and thus gets it wrong, can the rest of us be
expected to better read the Fed’s intentions? Well maybe the Fed changed its mind at the
last minute?
Charlie: Can you ask me about Brazil, or Russia, or
even Argentina?
Me:
OK, so where do we stand now? I heard one FOMC member saying they might
taper in October, and another saying that unemployment was too high and
Washington pols too reckless to even think about it, and still another saying
that the Fed’s perceived U turn had damaged the credibility of the institution…
Charlie?
Charlie: Sorry, got to go, Patty and I got the
grandkids for the weekend!
