RIP: Ned Gramlich (1939-2007)

[dlgood]

Saw last night in the Washington Post:

A Well-Grounded Economist
By Steven Pearlstein
Friday, September 7, 2007; D01

Ned Gramlich led the life most policy intellectuals only dream of: PhD in economics from Yale. Research staff at the Federal Reserve. Policy director of the Office of Economic Opportunity. Director of the Congressional Budget Office. Dean of the University of Michigan's School of Public Policy. Director of the Institute of Public Policy. Chairman of a blue-ribbon panel on Social Security. Governor of the Federal Reserve.

(Rest of Article following link...)

Ned was the Dean of the University of Michigan School of Public Policy when I signed up to go there, and after he left to go back to Washington to work at the Fed, hosted a number of gatherings for us Michigan folks. He was indeed, as Pearlstein said, one of the nicest men in Washington. Plus, who wouldn't love to go to school where the brilliant Dean encourages everyon to call him "Ned".

Carlyle may have called Economics the "dismal science", but Dr. Gramlich was anything but. First and foremost, our role in the public sphere is about what we can do to create and support conditions that improve lives. Dr. Gramlich was so well respected because he never forgot that... never let us forget that.

He will be missed.

Comments

[a2zmom.livejournal.com]

our role in the public sphere is about what we can do to create and support conditions that improve lives.

Can you imagine what kind of world we could live in if peopole remembered this?

[midnightsjane.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Would that all people with power and influence lived by that philosophy..the world would be a far better place, I think.
My sympathies to those of you who knew this fine gentleman.