Puerto Rico

For students of economics the situation in Puerto Rico is a goldmine. You could find any section of any syllabus at play as recently their bond ratings went to junk. Government debt is huge, deficits are shrinking, unemployment is up, crime is up, taxes is up, utilities are  monopolized, firms are shutting down, people are migrating to find better opportunities and the schools in the country are falling apart. 

It makes me wonder what Puerto Rico will look like in 10 years. Recently a new governor has taken over and the actions that Mr. Padilla have taken such as overhauling public pensions and raising taxes do seem to be correct moves, but the bleeding hasn't stopped yet. 

Yellen FTW

Last week Janet Yellen was confirmed as the next head of the US Federal Reserve. The move is no surprise as Yellen has long been known to be taking over from Bernanke. Yellen’s idealogy seems to tie in pretty closely with that of Bernanke and I wouldn’t expect any sudden change of policy. The FED will likely continue to wind down its stimulus as the US economy recovers with Yellen at the head. This appointment isn’t a controversial one and it isn’t a surprise, but it still is big news because Yellen is a woman.

It is hard to overstate the importance that carries. Christine LeGarde is head of the IMF, Merkel chancellor of Germany, so women are represented in what would be considered  economic positions of power in the world, but not that often. At the University of Chicago, a well respect economics program, women represent 4 of the 35 faculty in the Economics department. Not exactly an even spread.

I teach IB economics and would assume that most students take the class first for interest, but second to fill a requirement they will need in university.  I find that while about half of my classes are girls when we talk about university plans the ratio of those going into economics related fields tilts heavily towards males. Why is this so?