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

• Everyone Should Pay for Cyber Defense , April 22, 2012
• Europe Needs the Bond Vigilantes , April 5, 2012
• The Euro Zone's Double Failure , December 15, 2011
• The Tax Reform Evidence From 1986 ,October 24, 2011
• A Falling Dollar Will Mean a Faster U.S. Recovery, August 1, 2011
• The Economy Is Worse Than You Think , June 8, 2011
• Private Accounts Can Save Social Security , May 2, 2011
• Still an Economic Mistake, March 7, 2011
• Want to Boost the Economy? Lower Corporate Tax Rates, February 15, 2011
• The Deficit Dilemma and Obama's Budget ,November 18, 2010
• The 'Tax Expenditure' Solution for Our National Debt ,July 20, 2010
• Extend the Bush Tax Cuts-For Now , May 12, 2010
• How Obama Should Shrink His Deficit , February 18, 2010
• Missing the Target , January 20, 2010
• 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 the Wall Street Journal articles.

Recent articles in the Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Washington Post, and New York Times

• Taxpayers must backstop Spain’s budget, The Financial Times, April 30, 2011
• Obama’s tax hikes threaten a new US recession, The Financial Times, March 19, 2011
• Weaker euro will help solve Europe deficit woes, The Financial Times, December 19, 2011
• The Failure of the Euro, The Foreign Affairs, December 13, 2011
• Italy can save itself and the Euro, The Financial Times, November 30, 2011
• How to Stop the Drop in Home Values, The New York Times, October 13, 2011
• Forget the debt: its jobs that will define Obama's future, The Financial Times, July 25, 2011
• The Latest Challenge to ECB Independence, The Financial Times, June 30, 2011
• Postponing Greece's inevitable default, The Financial Times, June 22, 2011
• Raise Taxes, but Not Tax Rates, The New York Times, May 4, 2011
• How to cut the deficit without raising taxes, The Washington Post, November 29, 2010
• QE2 is risky and should be limited, The Financial Times, November 3, 2010
• A double dip is a price worth paying, The Financial Times, July 22,2010
• For a Solution to the Euro Crisis, Look to the States, The Washington Post, May 18, 2010
• Let Greece Take a Holiday from the Eurozone, The Financial Times, February 17, 2010
• Dollar Weakness Reflects a New Role for Reserves, The Financial Times, December 10, 2009
• 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

• Archive of the Financial Times, Washington Post, and New York Times articles.

Project Syndicate articles

• The Economy and the Presidency Project Syndicate, April 29, 2012
• Fed Policy and Inflation Risk Project Syndicate, March 31, 2012
• Europe’s Empty Fiscal Compact Project Syndicate, February 27, 2012
• How to Create a Depression Project Syndicate, January 16, 2012
• The French Don’t Get It Project Syndicate, December 28, 2011
• Europe is Not the United States Project Syndicate, November 29, 2011
• America’s Economic Stalemate Project Syndicate, October 26, 2011
• Europes High Risk Gamble Project Syndicate, September 27, 2011
• China's New Currency Policy Project Syndicate, August 23, 2011
• Why is America's Budget Deficit So Large? Project Syndicate, July 29, 2011
• What's Happening to the US Economy? Project Syndicate, June 29, 2011
• After the Greek Default Project Syndicate, May 26, 2011
• The G-20's Empty Gestures Project Syndicate, April 26, 2011
• China's Five-Year Plan and Global Interest Rates Project Syndicate, March 29, 2011
• The End of China's Surplus Project Syndicate , January 28, 2011
• What's So Good about America's Tax Package? Project Syndicate , December 29, 2010
• Quantitative Easing and the Renminbi Project Syndicate , November 26, 2010
• Why Has America's Economic Recovery Stalled? Project Syndicate , October 25, 2010
• The Future of the Dollar Project Syndicate , October 20, 2010
• Japan's Savings Crisis Project Syndicate , September, 2010
• America's Saving Surprise Project Syndicate , August, 2010
• The Hidden Future of the US Economy Project Syndicate , July, 2010
• Inflation or Deflation? Project Syndicate , June, 2010
• Chronicle of a Currency Crisis Foretold Project Syndicate , May, 2010
• Why Greece Will Default Project Syndicate , April, 2010
• Is the Euro Overvalued? Project Syndicate , March, 2010
• How Safe are Your Dollars? Project Syndicate , February, 2010
• America's Growth in the Decade Ahead Project Syndicate , January, 2010
• Is the Reagan-0Thatcher Revolution Over? Project Syndicate , January, 2010
• Is Gold a Good Hedge? Project Syndicate , December, 2009
• Can the Euro Zone Survive Economic Recovery? Project Syndicate , November, 2009
• The Global Impact of America's Health Care Debate Project Syndicate , October, 2009
• The G-20's Empty Promises Project Syndicate , September, 2009
• The Global Impact of America's Housing Crisis Project Syndicate , August, 2009
• America's Saving Rate and the Dollar's Future Project Syndicate , July, 2009
• Will Cap-and-Trade Incite Protectionism? Project Syndicate , June, 2009
• Has the US Recovery Begun? Project Syndicate , May, 2009
• Deflation Doldrums? Project Syndicate , April, 2009
• China's Recovery and Global Growth Project Syndicate , March, 2009
• The Black Hole in America's GDP Project Syndicate , February, 2009
• The Case for Fiscal Stimulus Project Syndicate , January, 2009
• Will the Euro Survive the Current Crisis? Project Syndicate , 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 Effect of Defense Spending on the US Economy Testimony to House Armed Services Committee, October 26, 2011
• Why the Dollar Will Weaken Further The International Economy, Summer, 2011
• Another Way To Curb Deficits The Weekly Standard, May 30, 2011
• Capping Individual Tax Expenditure Benefits Tax Notes , May 2, 2011
• America's Challenge (Kristol Lecture) - Video May 2011
• America's Challenge (Kristol Lecture) May 2011.
• America's Challenge -- Long Version Essay May 2011.
• The Euro and Vaclav Klaus March 2011.
• The Role of Currency Realignments in Eliminating the US and China Current Account Imbalances NBER Working Paper 16674, January 2011.
• Preventing a National Debt Explosion NBER Working Paper 16451, October 2010.
• Will the Eurozone Fragment -- A Debate Economist.com/Debate, May/June 2010
• Reuters Interview on US Economy, January, 2010
• What Powers for the Federal Reserve? Journal of Economic Literature, 2010
• 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

• 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