March 11, 2010 Palikir, Pohnpei- The FSM Office of Statistics, Budget, Overseas Development Assistance and Compact Management (SBOC) has a new Economist working with them in Palikir. His name is Mr. Samuel Brazys and he is originally from the city of Indianapolis in the United States. Mr. Brazys has a strong educational background in Economics as he has graduated from Marquette University with a B.A. Summa Cum Laude in Economics and Political Science, and then from The London School of Economics and Political Science, London UK with a Master of Science degree in Merit in Politics of the World Economy. He also has a Masters of Arts degree in Economics from Indiana University, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at Indiana University.
Most recently Mr. Brazys has been an Instructor at Indiana University in the Department of Political Science. The courses he taught include International Political Controversies, WTO Backlash 9/11, Democracy and National Security, and one on Human Rights. An article he wrote called "A Race to Give? The Selective Effectiveness of United States Trade Capacity Building Assistance" is forthcoming in a leading international journal called the Review of International Political Economy and the dissertation that he is currently working on for his Ph.D. is called "Evaluating Trade Capacity Building".
He is already working on several projects in SBOC: a macroeconomic analysis of the amended Compact, a member of a multiagency Task Force in Chuuk to evaluate the impact of education on the Chuuk economy and on FSM's economy, working with the Budget Division on predicting better revenue forecasts, and is also assisting with writing President Mori's 2010 State of the Nation Address.