Redesigning Iraq's currency a massive job for UNCW's Simpson

The small, windowless office on the second story of UNCW's Cameron Hall says "newbie professor" more than it does "global financial warrior."

But then Thomas Simpson is nothing if not unassuming.The soft-spoken, second-year instructor brings to the University of North Carolina Wilmington a career that overshadows textbooks: three decades helping shape the nation's monetary policy as a senior staff member at the Federal Reserve, the organization whose every word is watched by world markets.

But it's the 64-year-old's international experience that should make him interesting even to people who yawn at the mere mention of economics.For the past four years, Simpson has been working to revive and sustain the Central Bank of Iraq and an economy shattered by neglect before the war and chaos after it. (continue)