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The ’80s Are Thriving at Trump’s Fed

Unequal wealth distribution is leading some economists to question the U.S. central bank leaders' love for the New Keynesian model, born of the experience of the 1980s.

About 18 months before U.S. President Donald Trump nominated him to the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, Marvin Goodfriend told an audience that his own family had been the victim of bad economic policy.

His father had accumulated most of his savings in the 1970s before retiring in 1984, the Carnegie Mellon economics professor recounted at the May 2016 panel discussion in Amelia Island, Fla. The savings dissipated so quickly, Goodfriend said, that his mother wondered if her husband had a secret family on the side.