Expectations
Rational and Otherwise

In late 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic, Van and I embarked on a project to write his life story. We held a long series of discussions about his past, including growing up in Chicago as the son of a patent attorney; studying economics and English literature at Amherst, Oxford and Yale; and his career as an economics professor after a brief interlude to join the anti-Vietnam War effort and Sen. Eugene McCarthy’s presidential campaign. We then talked about his long career as an economist in Washington, beginning with the start of the congressional budget committees in the post-Nixon years. During more than 60 hours of interviews, he also talked about his marriage, raising a family and his long struggle with expectations—those he held for himself and those he assumed others had of him. Interviews with family, friends and colleagues, as well as many hours of research, helped me prompt some memories and provide some telling anecdotes. We collaborated on how best to tell his story and ensure his dry wit showed through in his memoir. The photos below show the initial loose signatures, which were reproduced and sewn in a batch of hardcover books.