Talk:David W. Mullins Jr.

Term

From [1]. Looks like 1991 is when he became vice-chair, but I guess he was an ordinary governor before that? I just realized I don't know how the vice-chair of the Fed is appointed... Elected from among members? --JayHenry (talk) 05:45, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

time warp

I was confused by the following: He is appointed to a 14-year term in 1990 - I infer this would run to 2004. The article then says he resigned in 1994 with the phrase "although his term was to come to a close" Was he only appointed for a fraction of a 14 year term - else what happened to the remaining decade?

Thanks for the work on this article - Mullins was a very memorable teacher... Guus99 (talk) 15:59, 18 April 2018 (UTC)

• Hi, @Guus99: I wrote this section originally but I can't remember why I added that second sentence. I know I remember that his resignation was unexpected, but I can't square that with the 14 year term. A lot of the sources I used to write this are from newspaper archives so I no longer have access to them. If you can find the cited sources maybe you can figure out where this went wrong and add some clarity. Sorry for the error. Protonk (talk) 17:48, 19 April 2018 (UTC)

Suggestion re copy

Suggest intro's second par be absorbed into Early life and education section since it isn't why he's notable. Would bring up notability quicker and put some balance into his origins. Would do it myself, but you've just created it and nommed for DYK so would like to keep your shine on it. :) Julia Rossi (talk) 05:50, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

LTCM

I think it's generally recognized that the LTCM debacle wrecked his career as a central banker. He was once held in such high esteem that he was talked about as Greenspan's successor. Should this be mentioned? As an aside... although the Vega Asset Management detail appears to checkout, I have to ask, what sort of hedge fund has a Web site like this [2]? Google ads and formatting errors on apostrophes for a "How to Start a Hedge Fund" page? Is there something fishy here? I don't see Google Ads or a DIY section on Citadel's site. --JayHenry (talk) 02:02, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

• Looks like it runs on wordpress. I don't know about the 'wrecked his career'. It did, obviously, but I can't find a biography that settles in on him. He desperately needs one. Dunbar doesn't focus on his life post LTCM too much, and MacKenzie's two chapters on LTCM don't cover him nearly as closely as the other players. I haven't read Lowenstien. Kind of a quasi-tragic figure. Did the ground work on the Brady report, then imploded the financial system in much the same way 10 years (give or take) later. There's dramatic irony all over this. Protonk (talk) 02:08, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

I trawled the index for some choice excerpts from Lowenstein. He doesn't say a whole lot about Mullins either. I guess that was the nature of central bankers, a bit more so then than today. If Oliver Stone wanted to take on Central Bankers, this story would be the one. I'll leave how or if to incorporate these excerpts up to you...:

• P.37: "Early in 1994, J.M. bagged the most astonishing name of all: David W. Mullins, vice chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve and second in the Fed's hierarchy to Alan Greenspan ... Ironically, he had launched his career in government as an expert on financial crises; he was expected to be Long-Term's disaster guru if markets came unstuck again. After the 1987 stock market crash, Mullins had helped write a blue-ribbon White House report, laying substantial blame on the new derivatives markets, where the snowball selling had gathered momentum. Then he had joined the Treasury, where he had helped draft the law to bail out the country's bankrupt savings and loans. As a regulator, he was acutely aware that markets--far from being perfect pricing machines--periodically and dangerously overshoot. "Our financial system is fast-paced, enormously creative. It's designed to have near misses with some frequency," he remarked a year before jumping ship for Long-Term. With more omniscience regarding his future fund than he could have dreamed, Mullins argued that part of the Fed's mission should be saving private institutions that were threatened by "liquidity problems."
• P.37: Wry and soft-spoken, the intellectual Mullins dressed like a banker and was thought to be a potential successor to Greenspan. Nicholas Brady, his former boss at Treasury, wondered when Mullins joined Long-Term what he was doing with "those guys." Investors, though, were soothed by the addition of the congenial Mullins, whose perspective on markets may have been much like their own. Indeed, by snaring a central banker, Long-Term gained unparalleled access for a private fund to the pots of money in quasi-governmental accounts around the world."
• P.176
• P.208–9: Commentators took wicked delight in the fall of the high and mighty Long-Term, with its superrich traders, its esoteric mathematics, and its acclaimed laureates. The Financial Times of London observed, "If [David] Mullins enjoyed fixing crises so much, he must be a very happy man." The general, and understandable, reaction was one of horror that the Fed was coming to the rescue of the hero of Liar's Poker.
• P.227 [following the collapse]: Mullins, the central banker, decided on yet a third career change and became an adviser to several start-up companies that provided financial services over the Internet.
• P.176-77: As the firm's losses mounted ... [in August and September 1998...] Merton, his teacher, was upset too; he was distraught and not himself. Worrying that Long-Term's collapse would undermine the standing of modern finance--all he had really worked for--Merton repeatedly broke into tears. The professor was wonderfully human, after all. Scholes, too, knew that if the firm failed, many would consider their Nobel Prizes tarnished. Coincidentally, as the fund plummeted, SCholes made a long-scheduled visit to his hometown, Hamilton, Ontario, where he was honored as a local boy turned Nobel laureate. His audence had no idea of the trouble at Long-Term, and the tension on the guest of honor must have been unbearable. After fondly recalling his youth there, Scholes nearly broke down. Mullin's prospects had darkened, as well. The natty banker had once imagined that he might be a successor to Alan Greenspan. Now that would never happen.

--JayHenry (talk) 02:44, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

See if you can take a crack at it. I've expanded a little of the content, but he's such an opaque figure in that whole drama it is hard to flesh things out too much here. Protonk (talk) 08:11, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:David W. Mullins, Jr./GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Wizardman 17:37, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

Overall, while the article is short, it is well done. Here are a few things I found to fix:

• "At LTCM, Mullins joined what Business Week termed a "dream team" or financial experts and academics." Could we get some names of people in said team?
  • Done. The only two really important names for general readers are probably Scholes and Merton. Protonk (talk) 21:33, 11 November 2009 (UTC)
• Was all he did between 1974 and 1987 teach? It explains his time at Harvard in the lead nicely but not so much in the main text.
  • It's not in there because I don't know. I suspect he taught a lot about bond markets and financial crises, but my only indication of this is his publication history (which helps to explain why Meriwether would pick him for LTCM but not why brady would pick him for the black monday task force. Protonk (talk) 21:33, 11 November 2009 (UTC)
• Should his bolded name be David Wiley Mullins, Jr? I dunno if it's mentioned anywhere, but if his dad is David Wiley Mullins then it's obviously such.
• The lead makes up nearly 1/3 of the whole article. I'd expect it's size for a larger article, but not something this short. I'd move some of the less important notes from the lead into the text and weave it in.
  • Done. I think I wrote this in a period of LEDE silliness (on my part) Protonk (talk) 21:33, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

I'll put it on hold for a few days and pass upon completion, there's not much to fix. Wizardman 17:37, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

If this isn't touched in two days I'll fail it instead, which I would rather not do. Wizardman 18:45, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

Should be done now. Thanks for the pointer. I have a few content noticeboards on my watchlist and I miss stuff like this if I don't log on for a few days. Protonk (talk) 21:33, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

Ironically, the lead's now a bit shorter than I'd like, though it does fit proportionally. I won't worry about it, I'll pass it as a GA. Wizardman 01:12, 12 November 2009 (UTC)

Fed economist vs. Fed governor

Mullins is an economist by training. However, he should be specifically categorized as a Fed Governor.

Within the Fed, people refer to the staff economists as "Fed economists." A Fed Governor (and the District Presidents) aren't necessarily economists. For instance, current Governor Kevin Warsh is an attorney and has worked on Wall St. Similarly, Frederick H. Schultz was also an attorney and a politician before Jimmy Carter appointed him as Vice Chairman of the Fed. Alternatively, I am systematically categorizing the Fed Governors and Fed Presidents. Emjaymem (talk) 02:46, 6 December 2009 (UTC)

• I agree. Either the category didn't exist when I made the article or I couldn't find it. I'm glad that you are helping to categorize various Fed officials. Protonk (talk) 02:48, 6 December 2009 (UTC)

Peer review

Should we subject this article to peer review? Lbertolotti (talk) 15:18, 12 August 2015 (UTC)

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