Martin Feldstein
Martin Feldstein, Professor of Economics at Harvard, was Chairman of President Ronald Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers and is a former president of the US National Bureau for Economic Research.
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2012-01-16
| European political leaders may be about to agree to a fiscal plan which, if implemented, could push Europe into a major depression. It would be much smarter to focus on the difference between cyclical and structural deficits, and to allow deficits that result from so-called "automatic stabilizers."... read |
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2011-12-28
| The French government doesn’t seem to understand the real implications of the euro, which it shares with 16 other EU countries. French officials have now reacted to the prospect of a credit rating downgrade by lashing out at Britain, which is not in France's position precisely because it retains its own currency.... read |
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2011-11-29
| A key argument made by European officials and other defenders of the euro has been that, because a single currency works well in the US, it should work well in Europe as well. But, while both are large, continental, and diverse economies, the similarities end there.... read |
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2011-10-26
| The US appears trapped in a dangerous economic stalemate, as Republicans and Democrats harden their positions ahead of the 2012 congressional and presidential elections. But that also means that there is reason to hope for renewed progress once the elections are past.... read |
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2011-09-27
| The markets are fully aware that Greece, being insolvent, will eventually default. Why, then, are political leaders in France and Germany trying so hard to prevent – or, more accurately, to postpone – the inevitable?... read |
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2011-08-23
| The Chinese government may be about to let the renminbi-dollar exchange rate rise more rapidly in the coming months than it did during the past year. There are two fundamental reasons why the authorities might choose such a policy: reducing its portfolio risk and containing domestic inflation.... read |
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2011-07-29
| America’s enormous budget deficit is now exceeded as a share of national income only by Greece and Egypt among all of the world’s major countries. And the economic downturn since 2008 is only part of the reason.... read |
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2011-06-29
| The US economy has recently slowed dramatically, and the probability of another economic downturn increases with each new round of data. This is a sharp change from the economic situation at the end of last year – and it represents a return to the very weak pace of expansion since the recovery began in the summer of 2009.... read |
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2011-05-26
| The Greek government, the European Commission, and the IMF are all denying what markets perceive clearly: Greece will eventually default on its debts to its private and public creditors. But even a default will provide no guarantee of a return to fiscal sustainability – and it will not fix Greece's equally unsustainable trade deficit.... read |
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The G-20’s Empty Gestures
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Martin Feldstein 
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The world’s 20 most important finance ministers and 20 most important central bankers traveled to Washington this month from every part of the globe to accomplish, predictably, exactly nothing. But that doesn't mean that they won't claim credit for what would have happened anyway.... read
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2008-11-24
| The European Economic and Monetary Union is about to celebrate its tenth anniversary, having functioned well since its introduction in 1999. But the current economic crisis may provide a more severe test of the euro’s ability to survive than any it has faced so far.... read |
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2008-09-23
| Less than two months remaining before America’s presidential election, the US finds itself in the middle of a financial crisis, with the economy sliding into recession, monetary policy already at maximum easing, and fiscal transfers impotent. That is an unenviable situation, to say the least, for any incoming president.... read |
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2008-07-23
| The key determinant of the dollar’s long-term value is that it must decline enough to shift the US trade balance from today’s deficit to a surplus. Over the longer run, however, because the US trade deficit depends on the dollar's real value, inflation differentials could be a more significant force in determining the path of its exchange rate.... read |
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2009-12-25
| Many gold buyers want a hedge against the risk of inflation or possible declines in the value of the dollar or other currencies. But gold is an exceptionally poor hedge against both of these risks, particularly compared to the alternatives, such as inflation-protected government bonds and currency futures, that are available to investors.... read |
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2008-09-23
| Less than two months remaining before America’s presidential election, the US finds itself in the middle of a financial crisis, with the economy sliding into recession, monetary policy already at maximum easing, and fiscal transfers impotent. That is an unenviable situation, to say the least, for any incoming president.... read |
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2012-01-16
| European political leaders may be about to agree to a fiscal plan which, if implemented, could push Europe into a major depression. It would be much smarter to focus on the difference between cyclical and structural deficits, and to allow deficits that result from so-called "automatic stabilizers."... read |
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2008-11-24
| The European Economic and Monetary Union is about to celebrate its tenth anniversary, having functioned well since its introduction in 1999. But the current economic crisis may provide a more severe test of the euro’s ability to survive than any it has faced so far.... read |
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2008-07-23
| The key determinant of the dollar’s long-term value is that it must decline enough to shift the US trade balance from today’s deficit to a surplus. Over the longer run, however, because the US trade deficit depends on the dollar's real value, inflation differentials could be a more significant force in determining the path of its exchange rate.... read |
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2009-01-26
| Governments around the world are now developing massive fiscal stimulus packages that will cause unprecedented budget deficits – a sharp change from the reliance on monetary policy that was used to deal with previous recessions. But the emphasis on fiscal policy is justified, because the current recession is much deeper than and different from previous downturns. ... read |
2011-06-29
