Rethinking Economics: Reflections of an Uncommon Economist

'Sheldon Stahl had gracefully assumed leadership positions in the Federal Reserve, private firms and educational institutions. His leadership signature — alive in the essays in this work — was to allow people the freedom to achieve their best. His wisdom came in simple stories that made us want to emulate decency, idealism, and synergy with others.'' So Michael Tansey, professor of economics at Rockhurst University, introduces us to ''Rethinking Economics: Reflections of an Uncommon Economist,'' by Sheldon Stahl. The late Stahl, in these 36 compelling and inspiring essays, shows why he was an uncommon economist as well as an uncommon human being. He was an unapologetic liberal who spent much of his career working in the bastion of mainstream conservatism known as the Federal Reserve. His dear friend, the late Elliot Richardson, former U.S. Attorney General and author of ''Reflections of a Radical Moderate,'' used to tease Sheldon that he was the ''moderate radical'' to Richardson's ''radical moderate.'' This volume offers the thoughtful reader a rich and rare worldview, the perspective of a man grounded in the gritty reality of the ''dismal science'' of economics, but leavened by a hopeful idealism that never wavered. In these times, as the far right and far left do battle, his reasoned approach to policy and to life are very much worth remembering. The foreword is by Michael Braude, retired former president of the Kansas City Board of Trade.