MONETARY POLICY
AP Photo
May 30, 2009
"A History Lesson for Economists in Thrall to Keynes"
Op-Ed, Financial Times
By Niall Ferguson, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
It is a brave or foolhardy man who picks a fight with Mr Krugman, the most recent recipient of the Nobel Prize for Economics. Yet a cat may look at a king, and sometimes a historian can challenge an economist.
May 28, 2009
"Economic Crisis as Catalyst"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
Will the Arab world change course, and aim to really develop our vast human talent, free the minds and spirits of our youth, and move us towards a path of sustainable economic growth?
Photo by Martha Stewart
Summer 2009
"Economic Experts Suggest Causes, Next Steps for Economy"
Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter
By Sasha Talcott, Director of Communications and Outreach
Global leaders are facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Though Lawrence Summers, on leave from Harvard Kennedy School and the Belfer Center to serve as director of the National Economic Council, predicted that the sense of "freefall" may end in the next several months, a recovery is likely to still be some distance away. Belfer Center experts offer their thoughts on where the situation is headed, and what policymakers should do now.
AP Photo
May 13, 2009
"Tax Increases Could Kill the Recovery"
Op-Ed, Wall Street Journal
By Martin Feldstein, George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University
"It's not too late for Mr. Obama to put these tax increases on hold. If he doesn't, Congress should protect the recovery and the longer-term health of the U.S. economy by voting down this enormous round of higher taxes."
AP Photo
April 19, 2009
"Inflation is looming on America’s horizon"
Op-Ed, Financial Times
By Martin Feldstein, George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University
"The potential inflationary danger is that the large US fiscal deficit will lead to an increase in the supply of money. This inevitably happens in developing countries that do not have the ability to issue interest-bearing debt and must therefore finance their deficits by printing money. In contrast, when deficits do not lead to an increased supply of money, the evidence shows that they do not cause sustained price increases."
AP Photo
April 4, 2009
"Geithner's Bank Plan Is a Good Start"
Op-Ed, Wall Street Journal
By Martin Feldstein, George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University
The Treasury's primary plan is to induce private investors to buy pools of such high-risk mortgages from the banks. Individual banks will offer pools of mortgages for sale. Private investors -- including pension funds, insurance companies, hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds -- will bid for each mortgage pool in an auction. The total purchase price for each pool will be financed by a combination of the private investor's equity, an equal amount of Treasury equity, and private loans guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
AP Image
April 3, 2009
"G20 Fails to Take on Global Bribery"
Op-Ed, Harvard Business Review
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"The irony of the G20s silence about erratic and incomplete enforcement of the OECD anti-bribery convention is that the summit made a big deal about "taking action against...tax havens," citing an OECD list of nations not conforming to international standards for exchange of tax information."
AP Photo
February 3, 2009
"The case for fiscal stimulus in U.S."
Op-Ed, The Korea Herald
By Martin Feldstein, George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University
"Now, however, increased government spending and the resulting rise in the fiscal deficit are being justified as necessary to deal with the economic downturn - a sharp change from the reliance on monetary policy that was used to deal with previous recessions."
Winter 2008/09
"Linkage Diplomacy: Economic and Security Bargaining in the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, 1902–23"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 3, volume 33
The Anglo-Japanese alliance of 1902–23 illustrates the importance of economic side payments as a method for forming and maintaining alliances. It also shows, however, the influence of domestic factors on constraining these types of payments. Security concerns often lead a nation to offer side payments to a potential ally, but domestic political constraints, partisanship, and changing strategic needs account for the variation in the economic-security linkage.
AP Photo
November 26, 2008
"Will euro survive the current turmoil?"
Op-Ed, The Korea Herald
By Martin Feldstein, George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University
"Even if officials do not want to abandon the euro, they may come to do so as a result of a strategy of trying to get other countries to agree to a policy change. A country that believes that monetary or fiscal policy is too tight may threaten to leave if policy is not changed."
