A Farewell

This is the last newsletter. Well, maybe not the last in the sense that it will disappear, but the last penned by this editor and published in this guise.

More than just the usual vehicle to disseminate an institution's products and comings-and-goings, it has been an attempt to bring some levity to the usually dry fare of economics writing, and thus make it more palatable to an uninitiated audience. Judging from the feedback, such as the unforgettable mails from Mary E. Lovely, Nora Szech, Christian Ochsner, Marcel Thum, Salvador Valdés and many others, it has sometimes worked.

It was also an attempt to poke fun at the boss (here and here), muse about the quirks of Germany and the Germans (here, here, here, here, and here), the quirks of the European Union (here and here) and, at times, just plain fun (here and here), among the more serious sections dealing with economic indices, visiting scholars or the analyses of debt crises. (The Newsletter archive can be found here, should you want to browse some more.)

But the stint at CESifo has been far more than just the Newsletter, dear to my heart as it may have been. Working so closely with Germany's foremost economic intellect has been a fantastic, if at times taxing, experience. Roaming around the planet to make CESifo a byword for serious economic research has been, well, quite a trip. And lovely colleagues have enriched the personal side incalculably. Giving all that up was never going to be easy.

But your editor has finally been tempted to take the plunge. He has been lured to a dream high-level job in one of those hot (in more than one sense), exotic, ultramodern and eye-wateringly rich Gulf monarchies. Having to toil in oriental-splendored palaces close to palm-fringed beaches and all. Tough. But somebody had to.

A special thanks to Hans-Werner Sinn, who gave me a free hand not only for the Newsletter; to Yvonne Maldener, who faithfully put the Newsletter together month after month; and, of course, my heartfelt gratitude to all 10,000+ of you who subscribed to the Newsletter and clicked through its pages over the years.

Julio C. Saavedra