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Key Insights:

* The Federal Reserve Act directly speaks of the importance of representation—that Governors come from different economic communities with different economic interests, and not be limited to monetary economists, financiers and bankers, and rich asset-heavy worthies. The African-American community—and, indeed, the gloal warming-worrying community—are fine communities to be represented by a Governor.

* A former senior advisor to the Secretary of the T reasury for development and finance, a former senior economist at the Council of Economic Advisors who served as the point person on the European side of the Great Recession’s financial crisis, a tenured economics professor from a major state university in the Midwest and a former National Fellow at the Hoover Institution—there would be no Republican senatorial opposition to her from other than the ten wingnuttiest wingnuts were Lisa Cook not Black.

* We—at least Brad—is thus more scared than he was about the Republican-conservative white racial panic that this backlash reveals: 400 years of guilt from the enforcement of white supremacy have led at least the people who speak for the Republican Party to fear a former Hoover Institution National Fellow as a mortal threat by reason of what they presume is her hyper-wokeness.

* If Lisa Cook does not satisfy that Republican community, I cannot think of a single African-American who could.

* We are in an era of unrest, in which people are stupid and very stupid things happen. This white backlash against Lisa Cook is just one of the many very, very stupid things happening at the moment.

* This moment will pass: 10 years ago Lisa Cook’s nomination would not have generated a backlash; 10 years from now it would not generate a backlash.

* At this moment in America our competence as a nation to do even the very simple things is heavily compromised by the racialized hyper-politicization of nearly every single thing.

* Hexapodia!

References:

* Lisa Cook: Statement Before the Committee on Banking, Housing, & Urban Affairs, United States Senate

* Lisa Cook: Website <https://lisadcook.net>

* Lisa Cook: Biography <https://lisadcook.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/lisadcook_bio_short_0521.pdf>

* Lisa Cook: C.V. <https://lisadcook.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Revised-CV-PDF-Edits-0521.pdf>

* Lisa Cook: Violence and Economic Growth: Evidence from African American Patents, 1870- 1940 <https://www.jstor.org/stable/44113425?seq=1>

* Amanda Terkel: Biden’s Federal Reserve Nominee Lisa Cook Is Facing A Racist Smear Campaign <https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lisa-cook-federal-reserve-nominee-racist-criticism_n_61f367eee4b02de5f516fa2a>

* Olivier Blanchard: ‘I like Lisa Cook and believe she will be a very useful addition to the Board…

* Nina Banks & al.: NEA Supports the Nominations of Drs. Cook and Jefferson to the Federal Reserve Board <https://neaecon.org/nea-supports-the-nominations-of-drs-cook-and-jefferson-to-the-federal-reserve-board/>

* Brad DeLong: Lisa Cook Has Not Been Playing the Game of Life on Easy Mode…

* Craig Torres & Daniel Flatley: Fed’s First Black Female Nominee Brings New Focus, Stirs GOP Ire <https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-tax-report/feds-first-black-female-nominee-brings-new-focus-stirs-gop-ire>

* Paul Romer: Theories, Facts, and Lisa Cook <https://paulromer.net/lisa-cook/>

* George F. Will: Biden Proposes Saddling an Already Struggling Federal Reserve with Two Political Activists <https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/01/28/two-political-activists-nominated-to-federal-reserve/>

* John Cochrane: Fed Nominees <https://johnhcochrane.blogspot.com/2022/01/fed-nominees.html#more>

* Chris Brunet: Biden’s Fed Nominee Lisa Cook Criticized For Being Unqualified, Embellishing Resume <https://dailycaller.com/2022/01/20/bidens-fed-nominee-lisa-cook-criticized-for-being-unqualified-embellishing-resume/>

+, of course:

* Vernor Vinge: A Fire Upon the Deep <https://archive.org/details/fireupondeep00ving_0/mode/1up>

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