The last time I shared the same forum with him was at the Second South Asia Forex Dealers’ Association Conference at Hyderabad in October 1998. The East Asian countries were still in the midst of crisis. I remember that he had listed do’s and don’ts of policy making for crisis avoidance, and his words of wisdom continue to be valid even today.
Strong support from the users of the data is surely in order -- not just from academic economists, but from the whole community of market analysts, Fed watchers and business and financial organizations who need to understand how the economy is working in order to operate better in it.