Rick Mishkin declares an end to his Washington sabbatical

Back in March I blogged about the interesting and "mildly disturbing" tendency of Federal Reserve governors to bail out long before their terms expire. Now Fed governor Frederic Mishkin has announced that he'll be returning to his teaching job at Columbia after just under two years of making monetary policy. That's not quite a record: Alan Blinder only lasted 19 months, but he at least had the excuse of an expiring term as governor. Mishkin's term wasn't set to end until 2014.

The lesson here would seem to be that being on the Fed just isn't seen as very attractive work anymore. A resume-builder, sure, but not something you want to stick with for more than a couple of years. Certainly not as good a job as, say, college professor with consulting gigs and a major burger-related investment on the side.