Janet Yellen's Legacy at the Federal Reserve
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Why Should We Worry About the National Debt: MITCH DANIELS Questions and Answers LEON PANETTA TIM PENNY April 16, 2019
CHAIRMEN Why Should We Worry About the National Debt: MITCH DANIELS Questions and Answers LEON PANETTA TIM PENNY April 16, 2019 “Why Should We Worry About the National Debt?” describes six important ways PRESIDENT MAYA MACGUINEAS that the growing national debt will affect the budget and the economy. Below, we answer specific questions frequently raised about the topic. DIRECTORS Isn’t debt sustainable when the economy grows faster than interest rates? BARRY ANDERSON Despite the fact economic growth rate is higher than government interest rates (r<g), ERSKINE BOWLES CHARLES BOWSHER debt remains on an unsustainable trajectory in the United States. Economist Olivier KENT CONRAD Blanchard and others have pointed out that governments can shrink their debt-to- DAN CRIPPEN GDP ratio while still borrowing to finance their interest payments when r<g. VIC FAZIO However, this only leads to a sustainable outcome if a government is running a WILLIS GRADISON primary balance (revenue equals non-interest spending) or a sufficiently modest JANE HARMAN WILLIAM HOAGLAND primary deficit. The United States today is running a large and growing primary JIM JONES deficit. As a result, both debt and interest payments will continue to rise faster than LOU KERR the economy despite low interest rates. There is also no guarantee that the economic JIM KOLBE growth rate will remain higher than interest rates, particularly as rising debt puts CYNTHIA LUMMIS MARJORIE MARGOLIES downward pressure on growth and upward pressure on rates. DAVE MCCURDY JAMES MCINTYRE, JR. Do low interest rates mean deficits don’t “crowd out” investment? DAVID MINGE Evidence suggests that today’s low interest rates are in spite of, not because of, high JUNE O’NEILL deficits and debt – and that deficits continue to “crowd out” investment. -
The Defense Program and the Economy Hearings
THE DEFENSE PROGRAM AND THE ECONOMY HEARINGS BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC GOALS AND INTERGOVERNMENTAL POLICY OF THE JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES NINETY-SEVENTH CONGRESS FIRST AND SECOND SESSIONS PART 1 OCTOBER 7, 13, 22, AND 29, 1981, AND DECEMBER 15, 1982 Printed for the use of the Joint Economic Committee U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 9-760 WASHINGTON:.1983 JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE (Created pursuant to see. 5(a) of Public law 304, 79th Cong.) HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SENATE HENRY S. REUSS, Wisconsin, Chairman ROGER W. JEPSEN, Iowa, Vice Chairman RICHARD BOLLING, Missouri WILLIAM V. ROTH, Ja., Delaware LEE H. HAMILTON, Indiana JAMES ABDNOR, South Dakota. GILLIS W. LONG, Louisiana STEVEN D. SYMMS, Idaho PARREN J. MITCHELL, Maryland PAULA HAWKINS, Florida FREDERICK W. RICHMOND, New York' MACK MATTINGLY, Georgia CLARENCE J. BROWN, Ohio LLOYD BENTSEN, Texas MARGARET M. HECKLER, Massachusetts WILLIAM PROXMIRE, Wisconsin JOHN H. ROUSSELOT, California EDWARD M. KENNEDY, Massachusetts CHALMERS P. WYLIE, Ohio PAUL S. SARBANES, Maryland JAMES K. GALBRAITH, Executive Director BRucE R. BARTLETT, Deputy Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC GOALS AND INTERGOVEBNMENTAL PoLIor HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SENATE LEE H. HAMILTON, Indiana, Chairman LLOYD BENTSEN, Texas, Vice Chairman RICHARD BOLLING, Missouri PAULA HAWKINS, Florida STEVEN D. SYMMS, Idaho MACK MATTINGLY, Georgia 1 Representative Richmond resigned from the U.S. House of Representatives on Aug. 25, 1982, and Representative Augustus F. Hawkins, of California, was subsequently appointed to the committee on Sept. 23, 1982. CONTENTS WITNESSES AND STATEMENTS WEDNESDAY, OCTOBEB 7, 1981 Reuss, Hon. Henry S., chairman of the Joint Economic Committee: Open- Page ing statement ------------------------------------------------- 1 Weidenbaum, Hon. -
Reforming the International Financial Architecture, 2011 Edition1
Reforming the International Financial Architecture, 2011 Edition1 Barry Eichengreen May 2011 If U.S. President Clinton’s treasury secretary Robert Rubin is responsible for coining the phrase “international financial architecture” in a speech at the Brookings Institution in 1998, I deserve some of the blame for popularizing it.2 I used it in the title of my 1999 book, Toward a New International Financial Architecture, published by the Peterson Institute.3 I say blame because the term architecture conveys a rather misleading sense of the nature of the process. Mirriam-Webster’s on-line dictionary defines architecture as “a unifying or coherent form or structure” (as in “this novel displays an admirable architecture”).4 In other words, the term implies a unity and coherence that financial markets, institutions and policies do not possess. Alternatively, Mirriam-Webster defines “architecture” as “a formation or construction resulting from or as if from a conscious act.” But many of our international arrangements have, in fact, evolved as unintended consequences of past actions rather than as the result of anyone’s conscious act, “as if” or otherwise. The post-Bretton Woods exchange rate system, starting in the 1970s and extending through the present day, was more the product of the inability of policy makers to agree on the form that the exchange rate system should take than the result of any conscious decision. Consider current efforts to strengthen the international financial architecture. Do they reflect conscious action and are they likely to deliver the unity and coherence connoted by the label? Conscious action there certainly is, but it is decentralized and imperfectly coordinated. -
Fed Chair Power Rating
Just How Powerful is the Fed Chair Fed Chair Power Rating Name: Date: Directions: Sports fans often assign a “power rating” to teams and players to measure their strength. In today’s activity, we will research some of the most recent chairs of the Federal Reserve and assign them “power ratings” to express how truly influential they have been in the United States economy. In this activity, we will judge each person’s prerequisites, ability to play defense and offense. Chair (circle one): Janet Yellen Ben Bernanke Alan Greenspan Paul Volcker 1. Prerequisites will be measured by academic background, research, and previous career qualifications. 2. Offensive acumen will be evaluated using the chair’s major accomplishments while in office and whether he/she was successful in accomplishing the goals for which he/she was originally selected. 3. Defensive strength will be determined by the chair’s ability to overcome obstacles, both in the economy and political pressures, while holding the chairmanship. 4. The chair in question may receive 1-4 points for each category. The rubric for awarding points is as follows: 1 - extremely weak 2 - relatively weak 3 - relatively strong 4 - extremely strong 5. BONUS! Your group may award up to 2 bonus points for other significant accomplishments not listed in the first three categories. You may also choose to subtract up to 2 points for major blunders or problems that emerged as a result of the chair’s policies. 6. This is a group activity, so remember that you and your team members must come to a consensus! Prerequisites Offensive Acumen Defensive Strength Other Details Power 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 Rating Overall Power Rating is __________________________________ 1 Just How Powerful is the Fed Chair Fed Chair Power Rating Strengths Weaknesses Overall Impression Janet Yellen Ben Bernanke Alan Greenspan Paul Volcker 2 . -
Symposium Proceedings, 1998: Income Inequality: Issues And
The Contributors A.B. Atkinson, Warden, Nuffield College, Oxford University Mr. Atkinson is currently serving as warden of Nuffield College, Oxford University. Previously, he was professor of political econ- omy at the University of Cambridge, and chairman of the Suntory Toyota International Centre at the London School of Economics. A fellow of the British Academy, he is a past president of the Royal Economic Society, the Econometric Society, the European Eco- nomic Association, and the International Economic Association. He has served on the Royal Commission on the Distribution of Income and Wealth, the Pension Law Review Committee, and the Commis- sion on Social Justice. He is also the author or co-author of a number of books dealing with public economic issues and income distribution. Alan S. Blinder, Professor, Princeton University Mr. Blinder is the Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economics and co-director and founder of the Center for Economic Policy Studies at Princeton University where he has been a member of the faculty since 1971. He is also vice chairman of the G-7 Group. Between June 1994 and January 1996, he was vice chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Before joining the Board, he was a member of President Clinton’s Council of Eco- nomic Advisers where he was in charge of macroeconomic forecast- ing and also worked on budget, international trade, and health care issues. Mr. Blinder is the author or co-author of 12 books and scores ix x Contributors of articles on such topics as fiscal policy, monetary policy, and the distribution of income. -
August 5, 2021 the Honorable Janet Yellen Secretary of the Treasury
August 5, 2021 The Honorable Janet Yellen The Honorable Katherine Tai Secretary of the Treasury United States Trade Representative 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW 600 17th Street NW Washington, DC, 20220 Washington, DC 20508 Dear Secretary Yellen and Ambassador Tai: On behalf of the undersigned organizations, we write to express our support for continued engagement with China on trade and economic issues, including full implementation of the U.S.-China Phase One Trade Agreement (“Phase One”), and swift action to address the costly and burdensome tariffs and retaliatory tariffs. We support the Biden Administration holding China accountable to its Phase One commitments, and we strongly urge the Administration to work with the Chinese government to increase purchases of U.S. goods through the remainder of 2021 and implement all structural commitments of the Agreement before its two-year anniversary on February 15, 2022. The Chinese government has met important benchmarks and commitments made in the agreement that benefit American businesses, farmers, ranchers, and workers. For example, the commitment by China to open up its markets to U.S. financial institutions – and other U.S. financial service providers – reflects a hard-won U.S. achievement, and years of work by administrations of both parties. The chapter 3 commitments have been good for American agriculture, addressing most long-standing market access barriers. China has removed market access barriers for some U.S. fruits and grains and for nearly all U.S. beef products, as well as expanded its list of U.S. facilities eligible to export beef, pork, poultry, seafood, dairy, feed additives, and infant formula to China, among other actions. -
Who Should Be the Next Fed Chairman?
A SYMPOSIUM OF VIEWS THE MAGAZINE OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY 888 16th Street, N.W. Suite 740 Washington, D.C. 20006 Phone: 202-861-0791 Fax: 202-861-0790 www.international-economy.com [email protected] Who Should Over the next several years, commentators will speculate Be the on the identity of the next Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors once Alan Greenspan’s Next Fed tenure ends in 2006. Instead of speculation centered on who is likely to be next, per- haps the initial question should relate to who should Chairman? assume the post many describe today as “central banker to the world”? 44 THE INTERNATIONAL ECONOMY FALL 2004 TIE ASKED DOZENS OF EXPERTS Among those mentioned as possible replacements:* Bob Rubin Martin Feldstein Larry Summers Ben Bernanke William McDonough Joseph Stiglitz Lawrence B. Lindsey Robert McTeer Janet Yellen Glen Hubbard David Malpass Robert Barro Ian Macfarlane Bill Gross *Note: Selections made prior to November 2 U.S. presidential election. FALL 2004 THE INTERNATIONAL ECONOMY 45 BARNEY FRANK Member, U.S. House of Representatives, and senior GEORGE SOROS Democrat on the Financial Chairman, Soros Fund Services Committee Management f John Kerry is elected President, I will urge strongly Bob Rubin is by far the most qualified. the appointment of Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz Ito chair the Fed. That position has become the single most influential office affecting national economic pol- icy, and Stiglitz’s commitment to and understanding of the importance of combining economic growth with a concern for economic fairness are sorely needed. Given the increasing role that globalization plays, his interna- tional experience is also a great asset. -
Regional Oral History Office University of California the Bancroft Library Berkeley, California
Regional Oral History Office University of California The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California Charles Schultze Slaying the Dragon of Debt: Fiscal Politics and Policy from the 1970s to the Present A project of the Walter Shorenstein Program in Politics, Policy and Values Interviews conducted by Martin Meeker in 2010 Copyright © 2011 by The Regents of the University of California ii Since 1954 the Regional Oral History Office has been interviewing leading participants in or well-placed witnesses to major events in the development of Northern California, the West, and the nation. Oral History is a method of collecting historical information through tape-recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. The tape recording is transcribed, lightly edited for continuity and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewee. The corrected manuscript is bound with photographs and illustrative materials and placed in The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, and in other research collections for scholarly use. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is reflective, partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ********************************* All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between The Regents of the University of California and Charles Schultze, dated January 19, 2011. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. -
Henry Aaron, Brookings Insitution Gilbert Metcalf, Tufts University
An Open Statement Opposing Proposals for a Gas Tax Holiday In recent weeks, there have been proposals in Congress and by some presidential candidates to suspend the gas tax for the summer. As economists who study issues of energy policy, taxation, public finance, and budgeting, we write to indicate our opposition to this policy. Put simply, suspending the federal tax on gasoline this summer is a bad idea and we oppose it. There are several reasons for this opposition. First, research shows that waiving the gas tax would generate major profits for oil companies rather than significantly lowering prices for consumers. Second, it would encourage people to keep buying costly imported oil and do nothing to encourage conservation. Third, a tax holiday would provide very little relief to families feeling squeezed. Fourth, the gas tax suspension would threaten to increase the already record deficit in the coming year and reduce the amount of money going into the highway trust fund that maintains our infrastructure. Signers of this letter are Democrats, Republicans and Independents. This is not a partisan issue. It is a matter of good public policy. Henry Aaron, Brookings Insitution Gilbert Metcalf, Tufts University Joseph Stiglitz, Columbia University (Nobel Prize in Economics, 2001) James Heckman, University of Chicago (Nobel Prize in Economics, 2000) Daniel Kahneman, Princeton University (Nobel Prize in Economics, 2002) Charles Schultze, Brookings Institution (President of the American Economic Association, 1984, Chairman Council of Economic Advisers 1977-1981, Director, Bureau of the Budget, 1965-1967) Alice Rivlin, Brookings Institution (President of the American Economic Association, 1986, Director of O.M.B. -
Meet the New Boss, Same As the Old Boss (Part II)
Samuel Miller CFA, CAIA Senior Analyst Deron T. McCoy CFA, CFP®, CAIA, AIF® Chief Investment Officer Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss (Part II) Four years ago in our December 2013 SEIA Report titled, “The Federal Reserve: Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss”, we offered reasons why analyzing the human makeup of the Board is so important (hint: they more or less set monetary policy for the world, affecting global capital markets everywhere). We opined that the new incoming Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen was very much in line with her predecessor and that her appointment was a “signal to all investors that easy monetary policy will be the policy of choice for the foreseeable future” and “short-term interest rates might be low for another three years extending through 2016.” We concluded by stating “Yellen’s policies should support ‘risk assets’ (Equities, High Yield Bonds, etc.) in the near term with her hopeful goal of higher inflation and economic overheating (not a typo) four years out which will in turn convolute her reappointment process (in 2017).” Four years have now passed and while we can claim victory on our assessment of the stock market, our view of an overheated economy came up a bit short. As such, the reappointment process caused nary a ripple in global markets as the new-new boss is the same as the old-old boss. Who is Jerome Powell? On November 2, 2017, President Trump nominated Jerome “Jay” Powell to be the next Fed chair, providing clarification for the market and lessening monetary policy uncertainty in the near and intermediate term. -
What Have We Learned Since October 1979? by Alan S. Blinder Princeton
What Have We Learned since October 1979? by Alan S. Blinder Princeton University CEPS Working Paper No. 105 April 2005 “What Have We Learned since October 1979?” by Alan S. Blinder Princeton University∗ My good friend Ben Bernanke is always a hard act to follow. When I drafted these remarks, I was concerned that Ben would take all the best points and cover them extremely well, leaving only some crumbs for Ben McCallum and me to pick up. But his decision to concentrate on one issue—central bank credibility—leaves me plenty to talk about. Because Ben was so young in 1979, I’d like to begin by emphasizing that Paul Volcker re-taught the world something it seemed to have forgotten at the time: that tight monetary policy can bring inflation down at substantial, but not devastating, cost. It seems strange to harbor contrary thoughts today, but back then many people believed that 10% inflation was so deeply ingrained in the U.S. economy that we might to doomed to, say, 6-10% inflation for a very long time. For example, Otto Eckstein (1981, pp. 3-4) wrote in a well-known 1981 book that “To bring the core inflation rate down significantly through fiscal and monetary policies alone would require a prolonged deep recession bordering on depression, with the average unemployment rate held above 10%.” More concretely, he estimated that it would require 10 point-years of unemployment to bring the core inflation rate down a single percentage point,1 which is about five times more than called for by the “Brookings rule of thumb.”2 In the event, the Volcker disinflation followed the Brookings rule of thumb rather well. -
The Buttonwood Gathering New York, October 25 - 26, 2010 the Graduate Center/City University of New York
The Buttonwood Gathering New York, October 25 - 26, 2010 The Graduate Center/City University of New York About the event At last year’s Buttonwood Gathering, National Economic Council Director Larry Summers called on banks to accept the responsibility of greater regulation as a service to their country. Have they taken his words to heart? As the news continues to tell of a weak and jobless recovery, are banks and other financial institutions living up to their responsibilities? Once again in 2010, The Buttonwood Gathering will draw together leading policymakers, banking executives and regulators to discuss restoring trust in the financial system and evaluate our place on the road to recovery. Chair person John Micklethwait, Editor-in-Chief, The Economist The Bagehot lecture Mervyn King, Governor, Bank of England Confirmed speakers Mark Almeida, President, Moody’s Analytics Clifford Asness, Managing & Founding Principal, AQR Capital Management Zanny Minton Beddoes, Economics Editor, The Economist Matthew Bishop, American Business Editor, New York Bureau Chief, The Economist Joshua Bolten, Visiting Professor, Princeton University Joyce Chang, Managing Director and Global Head of Emerging Markets Strategy and Credit Research, JPMorgan James Chanos, Founder and Managing Partner, Kynikos Associates Ed Clark, President and Chief Executive Officer, TD Bank Financial Group Philip Coggan, Capital Markets Editor and Buttonwood Columnist, The Economist Sean Dobson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Amherst Securities Group Former Senator Pete