On Wednesday, September 30th, Gregory Hess, CMC's Dean of the Faculty and the Russell S. Bock Chair of Public Economics and Taxation for the Robert Day School of Economics and Finance was featured in a live interview on Bloomberg Radio's The Hays Advantage, hosted by Kathleen Hays. The interview was broadcast from the CATO Institute in Washington D.C. in conjunction with the Shadow Open Market Committee (SOMC), of which Professor Hess is a member.
The Shadow Open Market Committee (SOMC) was founded by Prof. Karl Brunner of the University of Rochester and Prof. Allan Meltzer of Carnegie-Mellon University. It held its first semi-annual meeting on September 14, 1973. The original objective was to evaluate the policy choices and actions of the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee (FOMC). Since 1973 the SOMC has met on a regular basis to discuss economic policy. Over the years the Committee has broadened its scope to cover a wide range of macroeconomic policy issues ranging from monetary and fiscal policy to issues pertaining to international trade and tax policy. The Committee's deliberations are intended to improve policy discussions among policy makers, journalists and the general public with the hope that wiser policy decisions will result.