Alan S. Blinder is the Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University and the vice chairman of the Promontory Interfinancial Network, a financial services firm based in Arlington, Virginia. He served as the vice chairman of the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors from 1994 to 1996 and was a member of President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers. He writes a regular monthly op-ed column for the Wall Street Journal and appears frequently on PBS, CNBC, CNN, Bloomberg TV, and elsewhere.