A sad day for the profession, former Chair of the Fed Paul Volcker passed on to the central bank beyond this plane of existence.

Among the great features of Paul Volcker to highlight are the fact that he is by all means an economist without having a Ph.D., the "Volcker Rule", his penchant for austerity, and the various cigar photos, my favorite of which is...

So today marks the finale of the Fall 2019 semester at Farmingdale State College.

I was touched when a group of students in my applied game theory course asked for a picture after the final lecture!
​
I have to admit I am really going to miss the class. Elective scheduling is somewhat a black box here, so I am sad to say I am unsure when it will be offered next. 

​Thanks for a fun semester !

I've been keeping up with my macroeconomic literacy (which if you know me, is a struggle) by listening to many audiobooks with the Libby app.Libby is an app that, with your library card information, will help you access free audiobooks. 

Living in NY certainly has its perks in this regard: The New York Public Library  has an extensive collection of free audiobooks available for checkout within Libby!

My 2019 reading goal, which I track through Goodreads is to read 24 books from cover to cover. This is a challenging task for me because my usual habit is to read an economics book half way, get super interested by an idea, and go pick up a different book on that. In turn, this leads to a shelf full of half read books.

What has been my favorite so far?

I wanted to read this on account of how much I enjoyed the movie. Great read! Highly recommended. 

Add me on Goodreads! 

Real earworms from Khalid below getting a lot of plays from me the past few weeks. Serious grooves!

I have the honor of being "Faculty Senator" for Farmingdale State College, which means that I represent Farmingdale at the "University Faculty Senate" (UFS). UFS is the legal channel through which the faculty influences system-wide SUNY policy. It meets once per semester to vote on resolutions and get policy updates from administrators.

The UFS trips are always a joy for numerous reasons:

1. The colleagues that attend are fantastic people. They are like-minded in their desire to make SUNY as great as it can be in about all dimensions: accessibility, quality, diversity, etc.
2. The networking opportunity is fantastic, you will always meet someone new. This Plenary I met the Chancellor, the chair of the Board of Trustees, and a mission-oriented CDO from College at Brockport who I think has many tools to help some challenges facing our campus. 
3. The travel - Meetings are upstate more frequently than not. I am totally fine with this because I currently love  just about anything upstate New York. UFS travel, so far, has allowed me to visit Syracuse, Saratoga Springs, Cooperstown, and most recently Albany.

Pics below of the incredible SUNY System Administration building .

A more centered view from the front shows there are flags for each campus decorating the plaza.

So naturally, I had to find where our flag is. It turns out we are right near the entrance!

It's also exquisite at night:

What a building!