With the sway of economic flux leaving many confused, Avila University’s new economics guru Alan Garner, sheds light and experience with his students and comrades.

Having recently retired from the Economic Research Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Garner has experience evaluating current economic issues and looking at the usefulness of various real economic indicators, such as commodity prices and employment costs.

“Needless to say, I am closely watching the current situation, but interpreting the economic indicators is even more difficult than usual right now,” Garner said. “Although the current financial crisis has some historical parallels, recent financial innovations and greater international linkages make the current situation somewhat different from any previous financial crisis.”

While the crisis has many angry, Garner uses the situation as a learning tool. Garner said that the recent bailouts have helped illustrate the issue of moral hazard, the idea that protecting companies or investors against downside risks may just encourage more risky behavior in the future because additional bailouts may be expected.

“One thing for certain is that our textbooks will need new editions soon because so much has changed in a short amount of time,” Garner explained.

Garner said he hopes that students walk away from class with more knowledge about economics and are able to question the practices.

“I would like for my students to have a better understanding of how economic events and principles affect their daily lives,” Garner said. “And I would particularly like for them, as citizens, to be able to evaluate public policy issues and participate insightfully in future policy debates.”

Garner, who earned his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University, is now teaching principals of microeconomics and money and banking. Growing up with his father a professor at the University of Missouri at Rolla and mother an elementary school teacher, Garner said that teaching was the family business.

“Before I started working at the Federal Reserve Bank, I taught economics at the University of Notre Dame,” Garner said. “College campuses are much more laid back, but one big similarity between Avila and the fed is the commitment and quality of the people.”

As a new teacher, Garner is concentrating on course preparations, but he said he is looking forward to the future.

“I am starting to think about some possible future projects, such as a book that would challenge students to examine different sides of major economic issues,” Garner said. “I am also interested in the offshoring of service-sector jobs and how that might affect job prospects for young American workers like our college students.”

When he’s not evaluating the current economic crisis, Garner likes to spend time with his wife, Susan, and son, Andrew. The family regularly heads to Colorado to hike the Rocky Mountains.

“We spend a week or so every summer at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, Colo., and hike mostly in Rocky Mountain National Park,” Garner said. “I have never been a thrill seeker, so I get most of my excitement by watching the Missouri Tigers football and watching stock prices gyrate.”