My friend Erik and I share an appreciation for great quotes. So, throughout the past semester we’ve been writing down some of our Macroecon professor’s fantastic dry wit. The guy is an amazing teacher and has such a great sense of humor you’d never suspect he’s a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank. Here is some of the fabulous under-his-breath pith Erik captured:

On prior experience with macroeconomics:
"If you feel you're in the left tail of the distribution, don't worry..."

On supply shocks:
"Wars and earthquakes are interesting to analyze economically..."

On preferable income distribution:
"You can't, from the womb, write insurance contracts..."

On international transfer payments:
"Suppose you go to London with nothing but your MBA degree, your suitcase, and your genius..."

On the flow of illegal money:
"Suppose you're a Peruvian drug lord, who's conservative, and you invest in T-Bills... you buy politicians, a small army--lots of stuff."

On balancing the current account and the financial capital account:
"It's a mindbender. Smoke some pot..."

On the impact of money demand on interest rates:
"When you withdraw money from an ATM, interest rates don't change. You're tiny."

On monetary asset classification:
"Monetary assets are categorized by their moneyness..."

On dealing with a tricky question:
"Let me interpret your question the way I want..."

On money market equilibrium:
"This was Milton Friedman's career-making equation. He was good at this equation..."

On the semantics of economic downturns:
"When a recession becomes a depression depends on whether you are running for office or not..."

On purchasing power parity in fast food:
"So following the arbitrage argument, Japanese families should be flying to New York, or at least San Francisco, to get their Big Macs..."

On the essence of financial genius:
"The difference between you, me, and George Soros is timing..."

On factors that affect net exports:
"And if you think anything else belongs up here on the board, ask me and I'll shoot it down so you know where you stand..."

On the ambiguous effects of economic events on net exports:
"What's the end result? You can't tell. Thank you very much, that'll be thirty grand..."