John Curry to Senate President Harris: Please appoint Tom Hall to STRS Board

From John Curry, November 20, 2006
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The Honorable Bill Harris

President of Ohio Senate

Mr. Harris,

Today I write to you to request that you assist (with The Honorable Mr. Husted) in appointing Thomas E. Hall to the Board of the The State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio. To date, we retirees have already seen resignations of several "appointed" STRS Board members. These "short lived" appointments were both executive officers in private enterprise and did little to promote reform on an STRS Board sorely in need of reform. This appointment will necessitate an individual who desires the appointment not as an opportunity to pad a resume, but to serve with drive, dedication, and purpose. SB 133, the Ohio Retirement Systems Reform Bill (now law), requires the appointee to have a background of sound investment knowledge. Mr. Hall has the investment background, drive, dedication, and purpose that are required for this appointment. Plus, Mr. Hall IS an active educator and a contributor to the STRS of Ohio retirement fund - all the better reason that this gentleman should receive your consideration for the appointment.

Mr. Harris, today many STRS retirees are suffering economic hardships due to STRS's inability (years ago) to plan for the future like your retirement system (OPERS) did. Many pre-Medicare aged STRS 30-year (full benefits) retirees are now facing monthly healthcare premiums in the $700 range to medically insure themselves and their spouses with STRS-offered healthcare insurance - rates for less than 30 years service are even higher. Had these same 30 year retirees paid into the OPERS system, they would now be paying a mere $80 per month (retiree and spouse included) for better coverage! They are paying more than eight times the OPERS rate! In short, Mr. Harris, we need an appointed STRS Board member who really has a serious interest in the STRS Board office that he or she will be appointed to. With this in mind, I request that you examine Mr. Thomas Hall's Vitae as it appears below. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

John Curry - an STRS retiree

Wapakoneta, OH

Thomas E. Hall: Vitae

Business Address: Department of Economics Miami University Oxford, OH 45056
513-529-2862 e-mail: hallte@muohio.edu

Home Address: 76 Oliver Road Cincinnati, Ohio 45215; 513-948-9983

Birth Date: January 31, 1954, Detroit, Michigan.

Marital Status: Married, one child.

Education:

Ph.D. Economics, University of California, Santa Barbara, July 1982. Fields of specialization: Macroeconomics and Econometrics. Dissertation title: "A Bayesian Analysis of Neoclassical Aggregate Investment Demand Functions."

M.A. Economics, University of California, Santa Barbara, December 1979.

B.A. Economics, University of Colorado, Boulder, May 1976.

Work Experience: July 1993-present. Professor of Economics, Miami University.

May 1988-June 1993. Associate Professor of Economics, Miami University (On leave May 1988 - August 1989.)

May 1988-August 1989. Visiting Senior Economist, U.S. State Department, Bureau of Economics and Business Affairs, Planning and Economic Analysis Staff.

August 1982-May1988. Assistant Professor of Economics, Miami University.

September 1979-July 1982. Teaching Associate, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Publications In Journals: "Price Cyclicality in the Natural Rate - Nominal Demand Shock Model." Journal of Macroeconomics, Spring, 1995, pp. 257-272.

"McCallum's Base Growth Rule: Evidence for the United States, Germany, Japan, and Canada." Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv Vol.
126 (December 1990), pp. 630-642.

"On Allocating the Variance of Output Growth to Permanent and Cyclical Components." Economic Letters, (1989), pp. 323-326 (with M.A. Fields and T.W. Fields).

"Income or Wealth in Money Demand: Comment." Southern Economic Journal, April 1988, pp. 1039-42 (with T.W. Fields).

"Anticipated Nominal Demand Shocks and the Speed of Aggregate Price Adjustment." Review of Economics and Statistics, Feb.
1987, pp. 140-4 (with T.W. Fields).

"Velocity and the Variability of Monetary Growth: Evidence from Granger Causality Tests." Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, February 1987, pp.112-6 (with N.R. Noble).

"A New View of the Market Structure Performance Debate." Journal of Industrial Economics, June 1984, pp. 397-417 (with J.L. Bothwell and T.F. Cooley).

Books:

Business Cycles: The Nature and Causes of Economic Fluctuations (New York: Praeger Publishing, 1990).

The Great Depression: An International Disaster of Perverse Economic Policies, with J.D. Ferguson (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998).

The Rotten Fruits of Economic Controls and the Rise From the Ashes, 1965-1989
(Lanham, MD: University Press of America,
2003).

Other Publications:

Book Review: Business Cycles Since 1820: New International Perspectives from Historical Evidence, by Trevor J.O. Dick, Journal of Economic History, 60 (June
2000), p 578-588.

Book Review: Economic Cycles: Long Cycles and Business Cycles Since 1870 by Solomos Solomou, Journal of Economic History, 60 (2000), pp. 931-932.

"Breakthrough Books."

Linguagranca: The Review of Academic Life, December/ January 1999.

"The Natural Rate of Unemployment," in David Glasner, Editor, Encyclopedia of Business Cycles, Panics, Crises and Depressions Garland Publishing, 1997.

"Consumption Expenditures," in David Glasner, Editor, Encyclopedia of Business Cycles, Panics, Crises and Depressions Garland Publishing, 1997.

"The Real Problem: Productivity Deficit," Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy, Summer 1992, pp. 63-5.

"Rising Oil Prices Cloud Economic Outlook," The Cincinnati Enquirer, 8/20/90.

"Why do Economists Disagree?" The Deltasig of Delta Sigma Pi, May 1987.