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I'm struggling to understand why we have any current h-1b economist position when that job market is in "free-fall"? The FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF CHICAGO can't f

I'm struggling to understand why we have any current h-1b economist position when that job market is in "free-fall"? The FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF CHICAGO can't find an American economist? https://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=&job=economist&city=&year=2025 https://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=&job=economist&city=&year=...

codyklimdev 1y ago
Why hire an American who will ask for benefits, significant time off, work/life balance, etc. when you can hire an H-1B that you can treat like an indentured servant?
- kypro 1y ago
  Plus most PhD have spent their whole life in education and haven't got any real work experience.
altairprime 1y ago
What intelligent economist would take work from this administration? There aren’t many unintelligent economists, and it’s not the sort of thing you can fake your way to a PhD in. With the U.S. branch of the field run aground on its refusal to identify the causal link from shareholder profits to inflation, failure to deliver solutions that don’t decrease profits is a certainty. So it makes perfect sense that they’d seek competent help offshore: any untried port in a storm of your own making.
- giardini 1y ago
  altairprime says >"There aren’t many unintelligent economists..."< How can you tell? Hell, with a few notable exceptions, maybe the entire field is largely a waste of time and money. "Show me a successful economist and I'll show you a man who has not made an accurate forecast" - attributed to former United States Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III.
  - altairprime 1y ago
    Intelligence doesn’t imply wisdom, nor correctness, nor even common sense. You have to be able to do a certain amount of mental gymnastics to certify as an economics PhD, is all. That doesn’t affect the odds of whether economics is ultimately found to be a waste of time and money, though it’s useful enough at delaying a possible reckoning.
keeganpoppen 1y ago
i don’t expect the fed to fix everyone’s problems… let them hire the best of the best, and let us internalize the benefits… i’m sure i don’t fully understand the significance of this, but from where i sit, in my fancy office chair in front of a very fancy home office setup (not to brag ;P), i see absolutely no compelling reason as to why hiring the best is a bad thing. is the accusation that the FED is trying to lowball american economists? somehow i am dubious, but am beyond open to being wrong.
- hluska 1y ago
  I could prove you wrong, but you don’t seem very open to it and I can’t under why you had to brag about how fancy your office is, so I’m not going to get started. But I don’t think you know what you’re talking about.
  - keeganpoppen 1y ago
    uhhh my office is fancy because i spend more money than i can afford on techno-gadgets-- a common nerd affliction that has nothing to do with conspicuous consumption, as you seem to feel the need to imply with essentially no justification. and if the proof were so goddamn easy, you'd think you'd just go ahead and just type it out, because then we could all go home after i give you my rubber QED stamp of approval... for someone as pedantic as you seem to be, you really seem to have an abusive relationship with the english language. apparently someone having a bunch of the computers in their office because they are a hoarder nerd makes them bourgeois.
- jocaal 1y ago
  > let them hire the best of the best The sooner people realize that there is no such thing, the better. People are extremely incompetent in judging competence. With that said, the solution isn't to then just hire the person willing to do the work for the least amount of money. You americans should realize you live in a society together and have obligations to give each other chances. Plenty of bright people around. This new top down command and control culture that has taken root in the American corporate world will be the downfall of the nation. Everyone is just trying to screw over the next guy for a quick buck.
darth_avocado 1y ago
If it’s an entry level position, there shouldn’t be a need for H1B. But some of these positions (including at the federal reserve) are probably experienced people with 10+ years of experience just renewing their visa while they wait for the green card backlog to clear for their country or an extremely tenured person from places like the Oxford University (the article mentions it). Pretending a fresh PhD with most likely no job experience can immediately take over that H1B position is intellectually dishonest. This obviously doesn’t mean I don’t advocate for creating more entry level positions which most of the economy these days isn’t interested in creating.

codyklimdev 1y ago

Why hire an American who will ask for benefits, significant time off, work/life balance, etc. when you can hire an H-1B that you can treat like an indentured servant?

kypro 1y ago
Plus most PhD have spent their whole life in education and haven't got any real work experience.

altairprime 1y ago

What intelligent economist would take work from this administration? There aren’t many unintelligent economists, and it’s not the sort of thing you can fake your way to a PhD in. With the U.S. branch of the field run aground on its refusal to identify the causal link from shareholder profits to inflation, failure to deliver solutions that don’t decrease profits is a certainty. So it makes perfect sense that they’d seek competent help offshore: any untried port in a storm of your own making.

giardini 1y ago
altairprime says >"There aren’t many unintelligent economists..."< How can you tell? Hell, with a few notable exceptions, maybe the entire field is largely a waste of time and money. "Show me a successful economist and I'll show you a man who has not made an accurate forecast" - attributed to former United States Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III.
- altairprime 1y ago
  Intelligence doesn’t imply wisdom, nor correctness, nor even common sense. You have to be able to do a certain amount of mental gymnastics to certify as an economics PhD, is all. That doesn’t affect the odds of whether economics is ultimately found to be a waste of time and money, though it’s useful enough at delaying a possible reckoning.

keeganpoppen 1y ago

i don’t expect the fed to fix everyone’s problems… let them hire the best of the best, and let us internalize the benefits… i’m sure i don’t fully understand the significance of this, but from where i sit, in my fancy office chair in front of a very fancy home office setup (not to brag ;P), i see absolutely no compelling reason as to why hiring the best is a bad thing. is the accusation that the FED is trying to lowball american economists? somehow i am dubious, but am beyond open to being wrong.

hluska 1y ago
I could prove you wrong, but you don’t seem very open to it and I can’t under why you had to brag about how fancy your office is, so I’m not going to get started. But I don’t think you know what you’re talking about.
- keeganpoppen 1y ago
  uhhh my office is fancy because i spend more money than i can afford on techno-gadgets-- a common nerd affliction that has nothing to do with conspicuous consumption, as you seem to feel the need to imply with essentially no justification. and if the proof were so goddamn easy, you'd think you'd just go ahead and just type it out, because then we could all go home after i give you my rubber QED stamp of approval... for someone as pedantic as you seem to be, you really seem to have an abusive relationship with the english language. apparently someone having a bunch of the computers in their office because they are a hoarder nerd makes them bourgeois.
jocaal 1y ago
> let them hire the best of the best The sooner people realize that there is no such thing, the better. People are extremely incompetent in judging competence. With that said, the solution isn't to then just hire the person willing to do the work for the least amount of money. You americans should realize you live in a society together and have obligations to give each other chances. Plenty of bright people around. This new top down command and control culture that has taken root in the American corporate world will be the downfall of the nation. Everyone is just trying to screw over the next guy for a quick buck.

darth_avocado 1y ago

If it’s an entry level position, there shouldn’t be a need for H1B. But some of these positions (including at the federal reserve) are probably experienced people with 10+ years of experience just renewing their visa while they wait for the green card backlog to clear for their country or an extremely tenured person from places like the Oxford University (the article mentions it). Pretending a fresh PhD with most likely no job experience can immediately take over that H1B position is intellectually dishonest. This obviously doesn’t mean I don’t advocate for creating more entry level positions which most of the economy these days isn’t interested in creating.