Federal Reserve’s Top Staff Economist to Retire

The Federal Reserve’s top staff economist David Stockton will retire on Sept. 30 after three decades at the U.S. central bank.

The Federal Reserve’s top staff economist David Stockton will retire on Sept. 30 after three decades at the U.S. central bank.

The 57-year-old Stockton, who has been director of the Division of Research and Statistics for 11 years, will be vacating a key position at a time when economic growth seems to be losing momentum.

According to a statement from the Fed, Before becoming the director of the division in 2000, Stockton had been a member of the division since 1981, after his doctoral work in economics at Yale University. The division is responsible for analyzing and forecasting domestic economic and financial developments.

“David Stockton is one of the finest economists I have ever known,” Fed Chairman Ben Benanke said in a statement cited by Reuters. “My colleagues on the committee and I have enjoyed the benefits of his penetrating and insightful analysis and impeccable judgment—not to mention his superb sense of humor.”

At the Fed, Stockton is known for cracking a joke or two even in the most serious environments, such as the Federal Open Market Committee meetings.

“While channel surfing the other night, to the annoyance of my otherwise very patient wife, I came across a new television series on the Discovery Channel entitled Flip That House,” Stockton told his colleagues at a December 2005 meeting, according to a transcript of his remarks.

“As far as I could tell, the gist of the show was that with some spackling, a few strategically placed azaleas, and access to a bank, you too could tap into the great real estate wealth machine,” he said, not long before a housing bubble was about to burst.

Stockton is set to leave office on Sept. 30 after experiencing both the Great Moderation—an extended time of relative economic calm—and the Great Recession in his career.