This article originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal on February 26, 2010 For an economist, these are the best of times and the worst of times. We live in the best of times because everyone wants to understand what happened to the economy and what’s going to happen next.…
Read MoreThis is the text of my testimony before the Joint Economic Commitee on December 10, 2009. It differs from the text in the Congressional Record that was submitted in advance. This is the actual text I delivered. Video of my testimony (along with Joseph Stiglitz’s testimony, opening statements by the…
Read MoreWhat follows is my testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, delivered October 28, 2009. The topic was executive compensation and the Special Master for TARP Compensation, Kenneth Feinberg, who was determining compensation at the firms who had not repaid their TARP funds. Chairman Towns, Ranking Member…
Read MoreHere is my take on financial reform from the latest issue of The Economists’ Voice. Download file
Read More(This piece appeared on NPR.org on 8/25/09) President Obama has reappointed Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, praising his creativity in preventing another Great Depression. Talk about damning with faint praise. It’s true that we appear to have avoided the worst-case scenarios of the last year, but at what price? Back…
Read More(This piece appeared on the Boston Globe website on 2/2/09) The House has passed an $819 billion spending package. Soon the Senate will vote. Will government spending get the economy going or slow it down? How long will it take to have an impact? How many jobs will it create?…
Read More(This piece appeared on Forbes.com on 1/23/09) President Obama is eager to attack the economic crisis. Here is the speech I’d like to hear from him. My fellow Americans, these are fearful times. Through a set of public and private mistakes, our financial system is in disarray. The problems of…
Read More(This piece appeared on Forbes.com on 11/20/08) President-elect Obama announced the other day that the government would do “whatever it takes” to revive the economy. I suppose that made some people feel good. After all, who wouldn’t want tireless effort in the face of a crucial problem? Unfortunately, the problem…
Read More(This article appeared in the Wall Street Journal on October 3, 2008) Many believe that wild greed and market failure led us into this sorry mess. According to that narrative, investors in search of higher yields bought novel securities that bundled loans made to high-risk borrowers. Banks issued these loans…
Read MoreThis commentary aired on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered on March 25, 2008. Audio is here. Wall Street is all about profit. All about the bottom line. And profit does play a major role in making our world go round. Without profit, there’s no point in taking risks. Without…
Read MoreThis commentary aired on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered on February 20, 2008. Audio is here. A friend of mine told me the other day he’s planning to vote for John McCain. Why? Because McCain promises to keep the Bush tax cuts and my friend thinks that a good…
Read MoreThis commentary aired on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered on January 16, 2008 in response to much talk about the the need to create a stimulus package to avert a recession. Audio is here. Love that word—stimulus. It sounds so scientific. With the right stimulus, you can even make…
Read MoreThis commentary aired on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered on December 26, 2007. You can listen to it here. I know the economic news doesn’t seem very cheerful these days. But a lot of it is blown out of proportion, stories and subplots designed to scare us, told by…
Read Morefrom Foreign Policy, November 2007 To hear most politicians talk, you’d think that exports are the key to a country’s prosperity and that imports are a threat to its way of life. Trade deficits—importing more than we export—are portrayed as the road to ruin. U.S. presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and…
Read MoreThis commentary aired on NPR’s All Things Considered on September 13, 2007. You can listen to it here. At the age of 20, Rick Ankiel was a starting pitcher on a playoff-bound St. Louis Cardinals team. Then it fell apart. I was there. I saw him throw five wild pitches…
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