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William Poole
Senior Fellow
William Poole is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, Senior Advisor to Merk Investments and, as of fall 2008, Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the University of Delaware.
Prior to joining Cato, Poole was the president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. He directed the activities of the bank's head office in St. Louis, as well as its three branches in Little Rock, Ark., Louisville, Ky., and Memphis, Tenn. In addition, he represented the Bank on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the Federal Reserve's chief monetary policymaking body.
Before that, Poole was Herbert H. Goldberger Professor of Economics at Brown University. He served on the Brown faculty from 1974 to 1998 and the faculty of The Johns Hopkins University from 1963 to 1969. Between these two university positions, he was senior economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington. He was a member of the Council of Economic Advisers in the first Reagan administration, from 1982 to 1985.
Poole has engaged in a wide range of professional activities, including publishing numerous papers in professional journals. He has published two books, Money and the Economy: A Monetarist View, in 1978, and Principles of Economics, in 1991. During his 10 years at the St. Louis Fed, he gave over 150 speeches on a variety of topics. In 1980-81, he was a visiting economist at the Reserve Bank of Australia and in 1991, Bank Mees and Hope Visiting Professor of Economics at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. At various times, he served on advisory boards of the Federal Reserve Banks of Boston and New York, and the Congressional Budget Office.
Poole attended Swarthmore College, receiving an AB degree in 1959. He received MBA and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago in 1963 and 1966, respectively. Swarthmore honored him with a Doctor of Laws degree in 1989.
Media Contact: 202-789-5200
To Book a Speaking Engagement: 202-789-5226
Articles and Newsletters
"Is a Benign Dollar Policy Wise?," Cato Journal, Vol. 30, No. 2, Spring/Summer 2010.
"The Way Forward: Incentives, Not Regulations," Chapter 15, Cato Journal, Vol. 29, No. 1, Winter 2009 .
"Responding to Financial Crises: What Role for the Fed?," Cato Journal, vol. 27, no. 2, Spring/Summer 2007.
"A Monetary History from a Policymaker's Perspective," Cato Journal, vol. 23, no. 3, Winter 2004.
"Is Inflation Too Low?," Cato Journal, vol. 18, no. 3, Winter 1999.
Opinion and Commentary
"Calling the President's Bluff," The Star-Ledger, May 15, 2011
"WSJ-NBC Poll: Making the False Case for Tax Increases," Forbes, April 29, 2011
"Say Goodbye to Fannie and Freddie," The New York Times, August 12, 2010
"State-Of-The-Art Health Care For Everyone?," Forbes, July 28, 2009
"The Bernanke Question," Cato.org, July 28, 2009
Events
"28th Annual Monetary Conference," November 18, 2010 [Conference]
"The 27th Annual Monetary Conference: Restoring Global Financial Stability," November 19, 2009 [Conference]
"The Financial Fix — Limited Purpose Banking," June 8, 2009 [Policy Forum]
"Market Bailouts and the "Fed Put"," November 30, 2007 [Policy Forum]
"24th Annual Monetary Conference: Federal Reserve Policy in the Face of Crises," November 16, 2006 [Conference]
Speeches and Testimony
"An Old Perspective on Asset Price Bubbles Policy," Conference Presentation, April 8, 2011.
Multimedia
William Poole discusses monetary policy on Bloomberg's The Hays Advantage (June 23, 2011) [Media Highlights - Radio, 06:50]
William Poole on the Fed on Bloomberg's The Hays Advantage (March 28, 2011) [Media Highlights - Radio, 16:38]
Quantitative Easing: You're Soaking in It (December 8, 2010) [Daily Podcast, 07:58]
28th Annual Monetary Conference: Is Monetary Policy Responsible for Bubbles? with Gerald P. O'Driscoll Jr., Carmen Reinhart and Adam S. Posen (November 18, 2010) [Events, 01:14:49]
William Poole discusses the central bankers' meeting and the Fed on BNN's Canada National Trading Day (August 27, 2010) [Media Highlights - TV, 16:35]
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