Charles Wheelan 鈥�88 on Money, Writing, and the 鈥楳anifesto鈥�

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By Kathryn Stearns

This Focus on Faculty Q&A is part of an ongoing series of interviews exploring what keeps Dartmouth professors busy inside鈥攁nd outside鈥攖he classroom.

鈥�88, a senior lecturer in economics, is the author of Naked Economics (2002) and Naked Statistics (2013), among other titles. Through his best-selling books, articles, and courses, he aims to make public policy accessible and understandable for a wide audience. Wheelan joined the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy in 2012.

Image removed.(Photo by Rob Strong 鈥�04)


So, what are you going to undress next?

I just finished Naked Money: What It Is and Why It Matters.

Will it lay bare derivatives and credit default swaps?

A little bit鈥攃ertainly as they affected the economic crisis of 2008. It鈥檚 about money, as in, why is a piece of paper that鈥檚 just a piece of paper a $20 bill as opposed to a legal pad? It鈥檚 about the whole concept of money, which is very bizarre. And it鈥檚 about banking, which is also bizarre.

How so?

Banking means that you put your money in the bank, they give it to me, now it belongs to both of us鈥攚hich is terrific if I want to buy a house. It鈥檚 more problematic if you want your money back, and I still have it. If everybody wants his money back at the same time, it doesn鈥檛 work. We鈥檝e had banking crises in this country since well before we were a country.

Naked Statistics tries to 鈥渟trip the dread from data." Thinking of 鈥渓ies, damned lies and statistics,鈥� what would Mark Twain have said about the book?

It may be lies, damned lies and statistics, but if you don鈥檛 know how to use them better than the next guy, shame on you. Twain didn鈥檛 live through the Big Data era.

You said you had wanted to write books since you were in elementary school. Why is that?

I have no idea, but it does seem like a compulsion. So as happy as I am to be done with Naked Money, there is still an urge to get up in the morning and to just write something.

What next?

There are two more books coming out. One will be an economics textbook, filling what my publisher (Norton) believes is a niche, and I think they鈥檙e right鈥攅ven the textbooks are too esoteric. So we鈥檒l take a Naked Economics approach, but make it a little more academic. And then the other plan is to write a book called We Came, We Saw, We Left: A Family Memoir鈥攐ur family is going to take off and go around the world in 2016-2017.

In 10陆 Things No Commencement Speaker Has Ever Said, you urged all young people to take time off to travel the world.

Yeah, exactly. I think going around the world with two teenage girls and an eighth-grade boy will be interesting, to say the least. This will be the second time we鈥檝e done this. My wife and I went around the world after college, before we had kids.

Does traveling bring public policy alive?

Absolutely. I am taking students to the Middle East in December. We鈥檒l go to Israel, Jordan, and, I hope, the occupied territories. The important point is twofold: One is this marriage of learning in the classroom and talking to people on the ground; and two, testing your hypotheses and listening to people who have very conflicting points of view.

Let鈥檚 talk about your political bent and The Centrist Manifesto. Why aren鈥檛 you out on the hustings?

You mean, like, running?

You wrote the manifesto, after all. Who鈥檚 leading this movement?

In some ways, I am. We created The Centrist Project and raised quite a bit of money. So we have grown to the point where we are way bigger than me or the original participants.

The project focuses on the U.S. Senate?

Yes, the whole strategy is to elect four or five independents in the Senate who will become a fulcrum for change, particularly if you deny either party a majority.

It鈥檚 hard to disagree with The Centrist Manifesto. It鈥檚 well reasoned. It鈥檚 rational. Why haven鈥檛 more people joined you?

There are a lot of issues about which people have honest disagreements. But we need people to reconcile them. That鈥檚 what we鈥檙e missing. We鈥檝e lost the peacemakers. The most discouraging thing anybody can say to me about The Centrist Manifesto is, 鈥淲ow, this is great! Good luck.鈥� Implicit in that comment is the notion either that it鈥檚 my problem or that I鈥檓 chasing windmills, which I probably am.

You have to be insane to run for political office these days, you suggest in The Centrist Manifesto. Who鈥檚 the craziest presidential candidate out there?

It depends on how you define 鈥渋nsane.鈥� They鈥檙e all, or at least most of them, way out of the mainstream. You wouldn鈥檛 elect Donald Trump to the school board. Or if you did, you鈥檇 then be trying to get rid of him.

What brought you back to Dartmouth?

Let鈥檚 start with what brought me to Dartmouth in the first place. It鈥檚 eerily similar to what brought me back. I had this passion to travel the world, and of course Dartmouth had all the foreign study programs. So I was able as a student to go to France, to London, to Kuwait. It didn鈥檛 satisfy my interest; it merely inflamed it. Fast-forward, and I鈥檓 teaching this class at University of Chicago where I鈥檓 taking students around the world. At the same time, I was also on the editorial board of the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, along with Bruce Sacerdote in the economics department, and during an annual meeting, on a cookie break at Blunt, he said, 鈥淲hy don鈥檛 you come back and teach for a quarter?鈥� Later, we took a sabbatical here with the kids, and they loved that. So at some point the family, as kind of a bottom-up decision, said, 鈥淲hy don鈥檛 we just stay?鈥�

You鈥檝e come full circle. What are the odds of that?

It鈥檚 not that crazy because this is such an attractive place to come back to.

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