My 15 Seconds

I attended a conference in Beijing in 2003 sponsored by the Chinese government. While in China, I also met with several Chinese officials, including the new Premier, Wen Jiabao, officials of the central bank, and the agency in charge of maintaining the exchange rate of the Yuan, or Renminbi.

In several television interviews I was asked about the dollar/yuan peg and whether it was appropriate. I tiptoed through the tulips on the delicate aspects of that question, focusing instead on the basic dilemma.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been reading Amity Shlaes’ wonderful book, The Forgotten Man, A New History of the Great Depression, with an eye out for parallels and lessons for our current crisis. You will find some of those and much, much more.

Amity showed great restraint in writing her book. A scholar with her expertise could have driven the ideological lessons home and saved those of us on a practical mission some time. Instead, she patiently let the characters and the circumstances speak for themselves letting the nuance show through for us to savor.

While I wasn’t totally clueless about the depression, not having lived through it, you see, I must admit that my knowledge of many of the details was limited.

Read the rest of this entry »

I just learned of the death of our beloved Rose Friedman.

This picture of me with Rose and Milton Friedman was taken at a Dallas Fed conference celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of their Free To Choose. Both of them graciously flew to Dallas and participated fully.

A few years earlier I had the honor of visiting the Friedman's in their San Francisco home. I had taken my two Dallas Fed board members who were the founders of the Fair Tax movement-then just called a national consumption tax-to discuss their proposal with the Friedman's, who were generally supportive.

Except for the spectacular view of the San Francisco Bay, their high rise home was predictably modest. Even the Nobel Prize hanging on the wall seemed unpretentious. Rose participated fully in the conversation, but also found time to serve milk and cookies.

Years later, at the Dallas Fed conference, I reminded Rose of that visit and asked her if the cookies were homemade. She said, "If I served them, I made them."

We will miss you too Rose.

Along with my sister, I participated in that decision for both our parents. They were both in comas and the decision was hard, but not really close. And, of course, consultation with the doctors was an ongoing natural process over time.  

No special, formal consultation was necessary and the idea of having one, charged for and reimbursed by public or private insurance, is distasteful to me. Some things just go with the territory.  “I’ll talk to you about pulling grandma’s plug if you make an appointment with my receptionist. You do have insurance for that, don’t you?”

My wife and I have living wills, and she is my designated plug puller. She accepted that responsibility readily, which I found a bit disconcerting. It doesn’t help that she’s always cleaning out the closets and giving perfectly good clothes to Goodwill. I, on the other hand, never throw anything out.

Read the rest of this entry »

Congratulations

Candace Elizabeth McTeer

High School Graduation

And Admission to the Honors Program

George Mason University

"Way to Go Girl"

Advice Follows

Read the rest of this entry »

Occasionally during this crisis period I've said things that cause those who know me to question whether I'm becoming a "Big Government Guy." I've been concerned, myself, which I've written about here. I may be like Mae West, who was pure as snow, before she drifted. If so, I haven't drifted far.  Life's small encounters keep dragging me back to my senses.

Read the rest of this entry »

President–elect Obama demonstrated excellent judgment in choosing my former Fed colleague, Tim Geithner, as his Treasury Secretary. Tim is not only highly qualified for the job, but he also brings needed continuity in dealing with the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

My Thanksgiving would be complete if Mr. Obama demonstrates similar wisdom by asking Robert Gates to remain Defense Secretary through the end game in Iraq. He too is ideally qualified, doing an excellent job, and appears to be well along the way to peace with honor, which I define as victory.

Read the rest of this entry »

I wrote the following article for Father's Day in 2002.  It was published in the Dallas Morning News on June 12, 2002, and is taken from the "articles" section of http://www.bobmcteer.com/.

"Hey Dad, Look at Me"

Me with my sons circa mid-1960s

"Hey Dad, look at me."  That's what dads are for.  You go to dad when you're right proud of yourself.  "Look, Dad, no hands."  "Hey Dad, I made the team."  "We won the game, Dad."

Recently, on an international trip, I had two firsts.  I sent e-mails from the airport in Zurich, and I plugged my laptop into a power outlet on the airplane.  Even though I was a few years late and way behind the curve in such matters, I felt the urge to tell my dad what I had done.  He is long gone, but he couldn't have related to my accomplishments anyway.  He never would have been part of the New Economy, and he never would have owned a laptop or any of its other toys.  But I could have told him it was a big deal, and he would have believed me.  And he would have been proud of me.  Dads are proud of their sons.  It's part of their job description, and it's what sons strive for.

There are no good substitutes for dads.  All my friends with laptops would not have been impressed.  They've all been there and done that, years ago.  My other friends would have not been impressed either — for opposite reasons.

My dad attended some of my high school basketball games.  He didn't know much about basketball and cared less.  But he was proud of me.  Mostly, he was proud that the bigger guys didn't knock me off my feet.  I wasn't that good, but I held my ground — on my feet.  Dads like that.

Until he died, my biggest dread was that he would die.  I used to dream about it.  They were nightmares.  Now that he's gone, I still dream about him.  In my dreams, he still lives.  And I'm still trying to make him proud.

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.