Full Disclosure: My Partner, The Labor Economist

I’ve been writing a bit recently about labor issues, and about topics which touch on administration policy.  And my better half, Betsey Stevenson, is currently serving in the administration as Chief Economist at the Department of Labor.  So I realized that a disclosure about all of this is probably in order.  Rather than mindlessly re-type this disclosure every time I write about anything where there’s any possibility of a conflict, I thought I would outline it all here, now, and just link to this in the future.
So here goes.  My partner, Betsey Stevenson is currently serving in a political appointment as Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Labor.  Betsey isn’t just my better half, she’s also my colleague, coauthor, and co-parent.  Yes, we co- a lot of things.  But we don’t co-blog.  (OK, careful readers will note that we have co-blogged in the past, but when we do, it is with explicit attribution.)  So when I’m writing here (or elsewhere), I’m writing as me—a freewheeling academic economist with all sorts of views about all sorts of things.  I’m not interested in re-hashing administration talking points, and I will (and have) criticize them freely.  But to be clear: These are my views as an economist, and a citizen of the world, and unless otherwise stated, I’m not speaking for any broader group, nor reflecting any privileged access to confidential information.  Now I will admit, I’m terribly proud of Betsey, so I will write about her exploits more than I write about most other economists.  It just so happens that I find the woman referred to as the “hippest-economist-ever” particularly interesting.