Don’t blame Elliott Parker for the so-called super committee in the U.S. Congress not reaching a deal on deficit reduction by its Nov. 23 deadline. The University of Nevada, Reno, economics department chair gave his input with plenty of time to spare for a compromise.

Parker was part of a select group of about a dozen economists – and the only academic among them – invited to Washington, D.C., for a Nov. 2 meeting on job creation and deficit reduction with the Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, of Nevada, and Senator Mark Begich, of Alaska, invited Parker and the rest of the group, which included chief economists for FedEx Corporation, the American Bankers Association, the National Association of Home Builders and the AFL-CIO.

Parker, who last to speak at the meeting, described it as a tremendous honor. He said: “It was reassuring, listening to all these chief economists describe what’s going on and finding it more or less agreed with what I thought was going on. The depressing part was the extent to which the senators we were talking to were frustrated. What matters most is who’s going to win the next election. It’s all about doing nothing until then.”

The meeting took place in anticipation of the Nov. 23 deadline for a select committee of 12 members of Congress to present its plan for deficit reduction, or risk triggering automatic spending cuts. The committee resulted from Congress’s raising the debt ceiling earlier this year.

Parker contributes analysis of economic issues to the Las Vegas Sun, Nevada Appeal and Reno Gazette-Journal, as well as Fox Business News. He teaches in Nevada and abroad on international trade and finance, China’s economy, comparative economic systems, economic development, intermediate microeconomics and micro- and macroeconomics.