Economic policy and economic policy advice are the focus of my research. I am a former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve System and member of President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers, as well as a Business Week columnist. In my work, I ask: How can our economic policies be efficient and at the same time shelter those members of society who have the least resources? A fundamental conflict between economic goals and political desires underlies much of economic policy in our current time. Policy decisions increasingly are made less by economists and more often by politicians, who choose solutions they perceive to be politically correct. Economic policy in the current administration is nothing short of comic opera, characterized by a combination of Keynesian fine-tuning, be-all monetarism, "rational expectations" as a policy determinant, and supply-side "quackery," all backing and filling between academe and the White House. At the same time I observe a fundamental economic shift is occurring, one that is altering the face of central banking, to the extent that we might say it constitutes a revolution in central banking. I observe three main features of this revolution. The first is the shift toward transparency: whereas central bankers once believed in secrecy and even mystery, greater openness is now considered a virtue. The second is the transition from monetary policy decisions made by single individuals to decisions made by committees. The third change is a profoundly different attitude toward the markets, from that of stern schoolmarm to one of listener.