By Julie Chen

Senior Staff Writer

Edward McDevitt, a lecturer for UCLA’s Department of Economics has been teaching ever since getting his Ph.D. at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1994.  He is currently teaching a class on Macroeconomics Theory.

Q1: To start off, what do you enjoy most about teaching?

EM: I very much enjoy the interaction with students, especially during office hours.  It is a challenge to teach economics and I enjoy that challenge.

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By Grace Chan

Senior Staff Writer

Professor Earl A. Thompson graduated from UCLA with B.A. honors, studied at the London School of Economics, and later received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University.  Throughout the years, he has recruited many grants and awards from different foundations and institutions, written over 43 published articles and is in the process of penning more books.

BBR: Do you support the bailout plan, why or why not?

Thompson: Oh, I call it the giant band-aid.  If not, it’s going to do just about nothing.  It will do a little.  It will prevent a few bankruptcies, but that’s not the real solution.

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By Gloria Ho

Senior Staff Writer

David Ravetch is a Senior Lecturer in the Anderson Graduate School of Management.  He obtained his undergraduate degree from UCLA, and after working for a year in an accounting firm, he returned to earn a Masters in Mathematics.  He has taught at UCLA’s Anderson School for 26 years in a number of undergraduate accounting classes as well as some graduate level classes.

BBR: I know during your Management 1B class you had a small introduction about rumors about you.  So going off that, do you know of any rumors about you or your classes circulating out among the students?  And if so, is there anything about them that you’d like to dispel or confirm?

DR: Okay.  The rumor about me is that I’m challenging and you have to work really hard, and that is ABSOLUTELY true.

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Eric Park

Staff Writer

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Professor Tornell of the Economics department at UCLA to discuss various topics in regards to China’s economy. Topics discussed in this interview include Yuan’s exchange rate, its trade with the U.S. and the state of the Chinese housing market.
Aaron Tornell specializes in International Finance, Economic Development, and Political Economy. He obtained his under- graduate degree from ITAM (Instituto Tecnológico de México) and his Ph.D. in Economics from MIT. He has served as an advisor to Minister of Finance of Mexico and has worked for a private investment firm.

BBR: In the 4th quarter of 2009, China reported that its economy grew by 10.1%. China’s economy has become one of the fastest growing and largest economies in the world. What are some of the factors you see as the driving forces behind this emergence?

AT: In the last few years, China has become the most important exporter in the world. China is now exporting a tremendous amount of consumption goods and many of the products bought here in the U.S. are exported from China. The high growth of China in recent years has come from an increase in their amount of net exports. Growth in China has not come from an increase in domestic consumption. This means that savings in China are very high, which means that the disposable income of the Chinese people is mostly saved as opposed to consumed. These savings are reflected in their current account surplus.

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