When a Nobel Prize Isn’t Enough

By artappraiser on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 1:58am |

By Peter A. Diamond, Guest Op-Ed, New York Times, June 5/6, 2011

LAST October, I won the Nobel Prize in economics for my work on unemployment and the labor market. But I am unqualified to serve on the board of the Federal Reserve — at least according to the Republican senators who have blocked my nomination. How can this be?

The easy answer is to point to shortcomings in our confirmation process and to partisan polarization in Washington. The more troubling answer, though, points to a fundamental misunderstanding: a failure to recognize that analysis of unemployment is crucial to conducting monetary policy.

In April 2010, President Obama nominated me to be one of the seven governors of the Fed. He renominated me in September, and again in January, after Senate Republicans blocked a floor vote on my confirmation.....

URL:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/06/opinion/06diamond.html