Disclosure

Disclosure of interest.

MilkyWayEconomy publishes research on the space economy, federal funding, and frontier technology. George Pullen is a partner and our Chief Economist, and he also holds federal employment. This page states both facts plainly, explains the terms on which his work is published, and records the disclosure that appears in every paper carrying his name.

George Pullen at MilkyWayEconomy

George Pullen is Chief Economist and a partner at MilkyWayEconomy. He leads the firm's economic research, including the Polar-Lunar Continuum framework and our work on infrastructure investment in extreme environments.

He is an author or co-author on MilkyWayEconomy working papers, journal and conference submissions, and articles. Where his name appears, the work is produced in his capacity as the firm's Chief Economist, as part of MilkyWayEconomy's research program, and not as a private venture set apart from that role.

MilkyWayEconomy holds a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with AFRL SpaceWERX and the U.S. Space Force. Where a paper draws on or names that relationship, the paper says so, and the non-endorsement language on this page names those agencies as well, together with NASA and the U.S. Air Force wherever a paper names them.

His federal service, and the terms of the work

George also serves as a Senior Economist at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. That employment is the reason this page exists, and it is why the following terms attach to everything we publish under his name.

  • The research, writing, teaching, and speaking are carried on outside his official position. They are not undertaken as part of his service in the executive branch.
  • The outside relationships involved, including his role at this firm and the publishing arrangements for the work, were approved in advance under the federal outside-activity rules, including the provisions governing outside employment and the use of nonpublic information.
  • The work does not draw on nonpublic agency information, and does not turn on ideas or official data that are nonpublic. It is built on published sources, public filings, and the authors’ own research.
  • The views expressed are those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the Commission, its Commissioners, or the United States Government.
  • Nothing published by MilkyWayEconomy is an official product of any federal agency, official agency speech, or an endorsement, and nothing in it confers or implies preferential treatment on any person or firm.

The disclosure that appears in each paper

George Pullen is Chief Economist and a partner at MilkyWayEconomy, and this work was produced in that capacity as part of MilkyWayEconomy's research program. He also serves as a Senior Economist at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. No material non-public information was used, and no client-specific information is referenced.

Full disclosure of interest: https://milkywayeconomy.com/disclosure

Where a paper names NASA, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Space Force, or the Department of Defense, the non-endorsement sentence names those agencies. The extended sentence reads:

The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Space Force, the U.S. Department of Defense, or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

That extension does not appear in a paper that names none of those agencies, which carries the shorter sentence exactly as written above.

This page is the full statement. Papers carry the short form and a link here rather than the whole text, so the disclosure travels with the work without crowding out the work.

What this page is not

This is a disclosure, not a biography. Biographies of the firm's partners describe their roles and their published work. This page answers one question only: on what terms does work carrying George Pullen's name reach the public, and how is his federal service accounted for when it does.

Questions about this disclosure, or a request for it in a specific format, go to official@milkywayeconomy.com.