A few years ago, a Fed-affiliated macroeconomist claimed that macroeconomics was underfunded. He estimated that about $2.6 million was spent by NSF on macro research, and that more was justified.
Is macro really underfunded? If one wants to measure the support of the Federal government for macro research, the spending of the Fed on its research economists should be included. How many economists are employed by the Fed for research purposes? How many other economists are paid as consultants? How much does all this plus research support cost per year?
We all know that number would be far larger than $2.6 million. In fact, the real question appears to be whether macro is overfunded!