For nearly 20 years, prior to his retirement, Gail Makinen was a Specialist in Economic Policy at the Congressional Research Service (Library of Congress). In this capacity, he served as an economic adviser on macroeconomic and monetary policy issues to the Senate Banking and House Financial Services committees as well as to the Senate Finance Committee and the House Budget Committee. Prior to his tenure at CRS, Prof. Makinen was the Principal Macroeconomist for the Government Accountability Office. Prof. Makinen received his Ph.D. from Wayne State University where he studied under the Nobel-laureate in Economics, John Harsanyi. He also taught economics at Wayne State for 10 years. Professor Makinen is the author (or coauthor) of 5 books, chapters in edited works, entries in encyclopedias, and more than 30 articles in professional journals. His paper entitled "An Independent Central Bank and an Independent Monetary Policy: The Role of the Government Budget. The Case of Poland 1924-26." was awarded the Jesse Burkhead prize as one of the two best articles published in the journal Public Budgeting and Finance in 2001.