Sesquicentennial Soirée
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policies on a nation’s income overall, while lic policy. They’re very interesting people to services. It’s central to the way the politi- ignoring questions of fairness and the dis- spend time with, and their support for the cal process works.” Citing one painful ex- tribution of income—the effects that matter work here is very gratifying. I don’t begrudge ample of government’s failure to appreci- to individuals. that time at all.” He chose to pursue the job ate this, he continues: “The initial failure of International trade, which has provoked in the first place, he recalls, because he “saw HealthCare.gov was damaging not just for populist ire on both sides of the aisle this elec- in Washington how important were good the particular program involved—because tion cycle, is perhaps the clearest example. ideas about public policy, and good people they fixed the website in a few months— Trade “generally raises the standard of living who put the ideas into practice.” but it was damaging for people’s perception for a country on average, but it does not neces- The most important piece of his agenda, of whether governments are good at doing sarily raise the standard of living for everyone Elmendorf says, will be replacing a wave the things they’re doing.” in the country,” Elmendorf explains. “That has of retiring faculty members: “We need to Fittingly, Elmendorf, who served as the been understood by economists for centuries, make sure we’re bringing in people at early head Economics 10 teacher while an assis- but many economists have put more weight stages of their careers who can be as effec- tant professor in the 1990s, closed the con- in their thinking and public comments on tive at teaching students and influencing versation with an earnest defense of his the gains to society as a whole.” Isn’t the an- policymakers.” Also on his list is modern- field. “If you want to expand health insur- swer, then, simply to redistribute resources to izing the school’s curriculum. Mirroring ance in this country, the basic tools of eco- those who are hurt by trade? Yes, he responds, the University-wide move to embrace ex- nomics are how you figure out how to do “but what if you don’t do the redistribution perimental learning methods, he says, “We that. Economists didn’t see the financial cri- part? Redistribution is hard, and we as a so- need to do less traditional lecturing and sis coming, but once it happened, it’s under- ciety have not pursued it with sufficient vig- more engaging students in the classroom, standable with the sorts of tools you learn or. Nonetheless, most economists say, ‘Well, and digital technology can be a big part of in Ec 10. And the people who were surprised that’s too bad, but we should still go ahead that.” And, he adds, “We don’t teach our were the ones who did not take Ec 10,” he and have more trade.’ And I think that’s the students much about digital technology, jokes. Despite its limitations, “Economics leap that isn’t so obvious.” but digital technology is central to national has been more right than wrong in the last Another example is the debate over en- security now and to delivering government 10 years.” vmarina bolotnikova titlements for the poor. Cutting benefits might raise national income by forcing low-income people to work more—but on Sesquicentennial Soirée a haze of excitement, she had complained balance, even for those who find jobs, earn- to Zadie Smith about an allergic reaction ings generally wouldn’t offset their loss in Harvard Advocate alumni to shoes bought at Urban Outfitters. (Jour- benefits. A lot of economists, says Elmen- take stock. nalistic ethics require me to identify that dorf, would focus on the benefit to society young woman as myself.) Other partygoers overall, but “you need to also look at whose On the first warm night in May, several grumbled about the lack of snacks. Perhaps income is going up and whose income is go- hundred literary New Yorkers gathered in they hadn’t noticed the cluster of grapes on ing down,” he argues. Economists today are a duplex apartment on Park Avenue. They a silver grape-shaped platter with a silver becoming more comfortable asking these were celebrating—not the publication of a grape cutter, or a small bowl of candies one kinds of questions. “More economists are recent book (despite the presence of authors can only describe as “European.” realizing that we need to focus on incomes like Louis Begley ’54 and Nell Freudenberg- How different it was from theAdvocate’ s for people at different levels of the income er ’97), nor the success of their publications small, white, clapboard house, with a door distribution, because the rising tide in this (though editors at The New Yorker and Farrar, that never quite shut, a toilet always about country over the last several decades has not Straus and Giroux were in attendance)—but to clog, drafty little rooms with stray pa- lifted all boats to nearly an equal degree.” the unexpected persistence of the magazine pers and misplaced sweaters. When the In moving from a public-policy role to that had introduced so many of them to writ- magazine moved in 1957 from its offices on university administration, Elmendorf has ing: The Harvard Advocate, now 150 years old. Bow Street to the two-story building at 21 had to weigh tough trade-offs of his own. “I Excess reigned. Above the Willem de South Street where it remains, the opening miss the amount of engagement with analy- Kooning on the wall: a Jackson Pollack. Atop celebration featured a live stallion, with sis that I had in my previous jobs,” he admits. the piano in the sitting room: a sculpture cardboard wings, tied to a large diction- He’s spent his career working for some of of a piano. On a terrace overlooking Cen- ary. (The Advocate’s seal features Pegasus.) the most influential institutions in Washing- tral Park, Gay Talese was telling a group of Former editor Donald Hall ’51 read a poem. ton—the CBO, the Federal Reserve Board, women about the sartorial indulgences of Former editor T.S. Eliot ’10, A.M. ’11, Litt.D. the Brookings Institution. Much of his time, decades past. “I had 100 suits. They never ’47, sent his regards in a telegram. of course, has been spent raising funds to seemed to fall apart.” One undergraduate But almost immediately after its opening meet HKS’s $500-million capital-campaign was saying that she had heard that Lena the building seems to have lapsed into a state goal (the school has met the target, as of this Dunham would be attending. Another was of charming disrepair, in part because it is so summer, and plans to continue fundraising). apparently upset because she had met an ac- consistently used. At any moment you may Still, he’s quick to add, “The donors to the tor from Downton Abbey and had asked him find students analyzing poetry, finishing up Kennedy School are people who are smart, his class year. A former Advocate member papers, and or engaging in a host of other accomplished, and very interested in pub- was nervously confiding to a friend that, in activities, many of which I cannot mention Harvard Magazine 23 Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 JOHN HARVARD'S JOURNAL here. “I so remember the smell of the stale, wasn’t talented enough to join. Years later, pages of the Advocate to comment on the mi- gin-soaked carpet….The locked offices were he conceded in a Paris Review interview, “I nutiae of Harvard life. “The present cheer, the settings for many romantic dramas,” says wasn’t a very good writer then, perhaps I with its first three breath-consuming ‘Har- Alexandra Jacobs ’94, a features writer and should have been turned down,” though he vards’ followed by nine enthusiastic ‘rahs,’ editor at The New York Times. “It was the place also complained that the editor who rejected generally brings up with a gasp on the last you could go and talk about DeLillo,” says him was “out of touch.” ‘Harvard,’” he wrote. “It has to be coaxed; novelist Benjamin Kunkel ’96. The Advocate was founded in 1866. Its we need a cheer that would be irresistible.” The Sanctum, the large open second predecessor, the Collegian, lasted only a few Years later, he begged Donald Hall to give floor room with the names of past editors months before being shut down by the him final say on the selection of his student inscribed in gold lettering on the walls, fre- school for attacking writing included in an quently hosts readings from professional mandatory chapel at- Advocate anniversary writers. In the 1980s and 1990s, Seamus He- tendance. The editors anthology: “Some of aney (not yet a Nobel laureate or Litt.D. ’98) were told that they one’s early things give would visit occasionally. It was “one thing would be expelled if one the creeps.” For to study [his poetry] in English 10a, another they published a new decades, editors of the to be hearing it in that room,” says Anne Fu- issue. Instead, a stu- Advocate have debated lenwider ’94, editor-in-chief of Marie Claire. dent named F.P. Stea- whether Eliot’s early Several times a week, members of the rns started a new poetry published in different editorial boards gather to discuss magazine.