Q: What does the Federal Reserve hope to achieve by putting economists like you out in the field?
A: Everything we do is to ensure economic stability. What this new position does is put monetary-policy functions here at the branch. There is a lot of stuff I have to do as an economist – research, public speaking, interacting with business professionals and our board of directors.
Q: How is your sense of Denver and Colorado different now that you live here rather than visiting from Kansas City?
A: After three days here, my daughter was excited to look for dinosaur bones and tracks. In 20 minutes, we were down in Morrison looking at fossils. Recently, we went up to visit friends in Breckenridge and were there in an hour and 15 minutes. That was one of the surprises, how close and accessible things are.
Another thing that is becoming clearer to me is the independent, entrepreneurial spirit of Denver and the Front Range. That culture is an important part of the success here.
For such an independent and relatively conservatively minded place, there also is a value on cooperation. A lot of the country looks to Denver for things like light rail, the arts financing district. That kind of cooperation is not what you would expect.
Q: How are consumers handling higher energy prices?
A: I am shopping for a house right now, and I’m thinking about energy and whether I want to heat the extra square feet. Does it have enough insulation? Will I have to put in new windows? You will see more of that mind-set over time.
Q: Are you worried that home prices could fall?
A: If I were moving here three or four years ago, I would be more worried. Denver’s home-price appreciation has slowed quite a bit the last two years. For the quality of homes we have here, the prices are pretty good. When you find a little bungalow here, it has been redone at a high level. Developers know they can recoup the investment. Leave me a home with a little something to do.
Q: As an avid cook, do you see a connection between cooking and economics?
A: Cooking is a way to disconnect from economics. It is pure consumption. I try not to bring the normal stresses of the workday home. My ideal Saturday is going to a (farmer’s) market and then going through cookbooks and putting something together. I can’t just go jog. I have to do something that will occupy my brain, and for me, cooking does that.
Q: What kind of cuisine do you prefer?
A: My family’s cooking was southern Italian. When those people came through Ellis Island, they cooked with a lot of ordinary ingredients. In all kinds of less economically advantaged cultures, you can find great cuisine where they have taken pretty tough raw ingredients and through innovation come up with stuff that is considered staples worldwide. There have been years and years of innovation to take simple and accessible ingredients and turn them into something great.
Q: How did your family influence your appreciation for cooking?
A: We didn’t have a ton of money, and we weren’t the types to run off to the mountains and ski. But looking back on it, we were incredibly fortunate. Every minor event would mean going to the grandparents’ house and having about 25 cousins around, and 20 aunts and uncles loitering for a long day.
I can remember my grandmother making cioppino. She would just throw everything in there. If my grandfather or uncle couldn’t catch something at the canal, they might even throw in the bait.
Q: Can economics grasp such intangible things?
A: People give economics a lot of grief for being about the money. That is not what economics is about at all. Just because you can’t measure some things doesn’t mean they aren’t real or that you can’t value them.
Social scientists need to measure the things that make conceptual sense. But we have to do a better job empirically of finding where the rubber meets the road.
Edited for space and clarity from an interview by staff writer Aldo Svaldi.
