Harvard University

George F. Baker Professor of Economics

National Bureau of Economic Research
President Emeritus

Curriculum vita and list of academic publications

Short Biography

Recent articles in the Wall Street Journal

• ObamaCare's Crippling Deficits , September 7, 2009
• ObamaCare Is All About Rationing, August 18, 2009
• How to Save an ‘Underwater’ Mortgage , August 7, 2009
• Tax Increases Could Kill the Recovery , May 13, 2009
• Geithner's Bank Plan is a Good Start, April 4, 2009
• Defense Spending Would Be Great Stimulus , December 24,2008
• How to Help People Whose Home Values Are Underwater , November, 2008
• The Problem Is Still Falling House Prices, October, 2008
• John McCain Has a Tax Plan To Create Jobs , Joint with John B. Taylor, September, 2008
• The Tax Rebate Was a Flop. Obama's Stimulus Plan Won't Work Either. , August, 2008
• We Can Lower Oil Prices Now , July, 2008
• Enough With the Interest Rate Cuts ,April, 2008
• How to Stop the Mortgage Crisis ,March, 2008
• Our Economic Dilemma,February, 2008
• How to Avert Recession ,December, 2007
• Social Security Compromise,October, 2007
• Liquidity Now!,September, 2007

• Archive of Wall Street Journal articles.

Recent articles in the Financial Times and Washington Post

• Obamacare's Nasty Surprise The Washington Post , November 9, 2009
• Why the renminbi has to rise to address imbalances The Financial Times , October 29, 2009
• A Better Way to Health Reform The Washington Post , October 8, 2009
• Obama's Plan Isn't the Answer The Washington Post , July 28, 2009
• Does the US Need Another Fiscal Stimulus The Washington Post , July 12, 2009
• The Fed must reassure markets on inflation The Financial Times , June 29, 2009
• Cap-and-Trade: All Cost, No Benefit The Washington Post , june 1, 2009
• Inflation is looming on America’s horizon The Financial Times , April 19, 2009
• A Deduction From Charity, The Washington Post, March 25, 2009
• An $800 Billion Mistake, The Washington Post, January 29, 2009
• The Stimulus Plan We Need Now - The President-Elect Won't Have to Wait Till January to Act, The Washington Post, October 30, 2008
• A Chapter for Detroit to Open, The Washington Post, November 18, 2008
• The Power of Oil Consumers, The Washington Post, Joint with Henry Kissinger, September 18, 2008
• How to shore up America’s crumbling housing market, The Financial Times, August 26,2008
• The crisis: a tale of two monetary policies The Financial Times , August 7, 2008
• A Home Price Firewall, The Washington Post, June 19,2008
• Saudi Arabia should ditch its dollar peg, The Financial Times, June 18,2008
• Misleading growth statistics give false comfort, The Financial Times, May 7,2008
• The dollar may be falling at just the right time, The Financial Times, March 28,2008
• A more competitive dollar is good for America, The Financial Times , October 15, 2007

• Archive of Financial Times and Washington Post articles.

Project Syndycate articles

• The Global Impact of America’s Health Care Debate Project Sydicate , October, 2009
• The G-20's Empty Promises Project Sydicate , September, 2009
• The Global Impact of America’s Housing Crisis Project Sydicate , August, 2009
• America’s Saving Rate and the Dollar’s Future Project Sydicate , July, 2009
• Will Cap-and-Trade Incite Protectionism? Project Sydicate , June, 2009
• Has the US Recovery Begun? Project Sydicate , May, 2009
• Deflation Doldrums? Project Sydicate , April, 2009
• China’s Recovery and Global Growth Project Sydicate , March, 2009
• The Black Hole in America’s GDP Project Sydicate , February, 2009
• The Case for Fiscal Stimulus, Project Sydicate , January, 2009
• Will the Euro Survive the Current Crisis? Project Sydicate , December, 2008
• America's Economic Challenge, Project Syndicate,September 2008
• What is the Dollar’s Sustainable Value?, Project Syndicate, July, 2008
• Dollar and the Price of Oil , Syndicate, May, 2008
• The Declining Dollar , Project Syndicate, March 12,2008

Other Recent Non-Technical Papers

• The Exploding Carbon Tax, The Weekly Standard, June 22, 2009
• Rethinking the Role of Fiscal Policy, Presented at the AEA meetings , January, 2009
• Lessons of China's Economic Growth: Comment, Presented at the AEA meetings , January, 2009
• Reflections on Americans' Views of the Euro Ex Ante, Presented at the AEA meetings , January, 2009, VoxEu.org, 26 January 2009
• The Economic Stimulus and Economic Growth, Full Statement for the House Democratic Steering Committee, January 7, 2009
• The Economic Stimulus and Economic Growth, Short Testimony to the House Democratic Steering Committee, January 7, 2009
• Testimony to House Financial Services Committee, November 18, 2008
• Optimal Currency Areas, ECBs Fifth Central Banking Conference, November 14, 2008
• The Breakup of the Euro Area: Comment , October, 2008
• TV Interview with Charlie Rose on Financial Crisis, September 30, 2008
• Resolving the Global Imbalance: The Dollar and the U.S. Saving Rate, Journal of Economic Perspectives , Summer, 2008
• Credit and the Real Business Cycle, Remarks at the 2008 Money and Banking Seminar of the Central Bank of Argentina
• The Current Economic Context, Opening remarks for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Conference on Maintaining Stability in a Changing Financial System, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, August 22, 2008
• Stepping Down as NBER President, Remarks at the NBER Summer Institute, July 24, 2008
• Monetary Policy Challenges in the Decade Ahead, Remarks at the 7th Bank for International Settlements Annual Conference, June 2008
• Testimony to Senate Finance Committee, January 24, 2008
• Designing Institutions to Deal with Terrorism in the United States,, Presented at the AEA meetings, January, 2008
• Did Wages Reflect Growth in Productivity?, Presented at the AEA meetings, January, 2008
• Testimony to House Budget Committee, December 05, 2007
• Housing, Housing Finance and Monetary Policy: , Remarks at the 2007 Jackson Hole conference of the Kansas City Federal Reserve, September,2007
• The Revolution in Economic Thinking and Practice:, Remarks at the Bradley Foundation Award Ceremony, May 3, 2007
• Why is the Dollar So High?, American Economic Association, April, 2007
• The Underfunded Pentagon, Foreign Affairs, March/April 2007

• Archive of Other Recent Non-Technical Papers.

Recent articles on Social Security Reform -- Non-Technical Papers   

• Structural Reform of Social Security, Spring 2005
  (Full text as published in Journal of Economic Perspectives)
  (Chinese translation)

• Realizing the Potential of China's Social Security Pension System, , February 24, 2006
  
• With Jeffrey Liebman (Published in China Economic Times and reprinted in Jiwei Lou and Shuilin Wang, editors)
  
• Public Finance in China: Reform and Growth for a Harmonious Society, World Bank, 2007, chapter 17
• (Chinese translation)

• Saving Social Security, July 2005
• The $110,000 Question, September 2004
• Fact vs. Fancy: The Skinny on Social Security, August 2004
• Reducing the Risk of Investment-Based Social Security Reform: A Progress Report, August 2004
• The Future of Social Security Pensions in Europe, September 2001
• Social Security Reform and Fiscal Policy in the Clinton Administration, June 28, 2001

• Archive of Social Security Reform papers.
• Research studies of Social Security

Boston Globe

• Archive of Articles in Boston Globe with Kathleen Feldstein.

Harvard University Courses

• EC1410 ,Public Economics
• EC1420, American Economic Policy
• EC2450b, Public Economics (Graduate) Right click on Syllabus to save to disk, left click to view in your browser.
  
  
• EC2490, The Economics of National Security Seminar