Fed staff suffers from a persistent and inherent bias. This arises from the asymmetric career cost to staffers of policy error. If you want to have a long career with many promotions, would you rather err on the side of the industry, or err against industry? Would you rather be wrong supporting "markets," or be wrong on the side of the hippies?
The hippies, if talented, make it to the middle levels. But the hippies never get too near the top.
Banking has become trendy in academia, especially outside the business schools. There are now a fair number of hippies in the wild, some of whom are getting some professional prestige as their careers advance. I'd recommend them as part of the pool of division directors, for four-year hitches or so. A division director should not have the tenure of a Supreme Court justice.
I know this world well and think hiring academics to be division directors would be a major error. Their expertise just isn’t relevant here. To be VCS and other agency principals, no problem. But not to lead career staff.
Fed staff suffers from a persistent and inherent bias. This arises from the asymmetric career cost to staffers of policy error. If you want to have a long career with many promotions, would you rather err on the side of the industry, or err against industry? Would you rather be wrong supporting "markets," or be wrong on the side of the hippies?
The hippies, if talented, make it to the middle levels. But the hippies never get too near the top.
Do you think we should replace division directors with industry experts to hand over the risk profile entirely to industry preferences though?
Banking has become trendy in academia, especially outside the business schools. There are now a fair number of hippies in the wild, some of whom are getting some professional prestige as their careers advance. I'd recommend them as part of the pool of division directors, for four-year hitches or so. A division director should not have the tenure of a Supreme Court justice.
I know this world well and think hiring academics to be division directors would be a major error. Their expertise just isn’t relevant here. To be VCS and other agency principals, no problem. But not to lead career staff.