MONETARY POLICY
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."
February 2, 2009
"Beyond the Age of Leverage: New Banks Must Arise"
Op-Ed, Financial Times
By Niall Ferguson, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"Call it the Great Repression. The reality being repressed is that the western world is suffering a crisis of excessive indebtedness. Many governments are too highly leveraged, as are many corporations. More importantly, households are groaning under unprecedented debt burdens. Worst of all are the banks. The best evidence that we are in denial about this is the widespread belief that the crisis can be overcome by creating yet more debt."
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."
October 14, 2008
"Economic Realities Must Guide Africa's Constitutional Reform Efforts"
News
By Beth Maclin, Former Communications Assistant, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"African countries need new constitutional orders to cope with modern economic challenges, Calestous Juma said at a recent lecture....A major challenge is based in the constitutions and laws left behind for the newly liberated countries. 'What was being negotiated as independence was really an exercise in constitutional continuity from the colonial period through independence,' Juma said....While there is enormous pressure on African countries to focus on economic programs, they are unable to because the governmental framework left behind did not integrate the economic role of the colonizer into the new role of president."
AP Photo
October 14, 2008
Paul Volcker: Bailout “Distasteful” but Necessary
News
By Paul Volcker, International Council Member, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Paul Volcker, speaking at a lecture in Singapore, said the U.S. economy faces a "considerable recession."
AP Photo
September 25, 2008
Feldstein: Everyone has a Stake in Preventing the Financial Markets from Collapsing
In the News
Martin Feldstein, president emeritus of the National Bureau of Economic Research and a member of the Belfer Center's Board of Directors, gave his take on the most pressing issues facing the United States' economy in an interview with Canada's Business News Network.
Justin Ide
September 9, 2008
Lawrence H. Summers Testifies on the Economy and the Case for Fiscal Stimulus
Testimony
By Lawrence Summers, Charles W. Eliot University Professor
Lawrence H. Summers testified that the American economy remains in a highly uncertain state with very significant risks to the downside.
