Martin Feldstein
George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University
Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Contact:
Telephone: 617-868-3900
Email: mfeldstein@harvard.edu
Website: http://www.nber.org/feldstein
Experience
Martin Feldstein is the George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University and president emeritus of the National Bureau of Economic Research. From 1982 through 1984, Martin Feldstein was Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and President Reagan's chief economic adviser. He served as President of the American Economic Association in 2004. In 2006, President Bush appointed him to be a member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.
The National Bureau is a private, nonprofit research organization that has specialized for more than 80 years in producing nonpartisan studies of the American economy.
Dr. Feldstein is a member of the American Philosophical Society, a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, a Fellow of the Econometric Society and a Fellow of the National Association of Business Economists. He is also a member of the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Group of 30, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Dr. Feldstein has received honorary doctorates from several universities and is an Honorary Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford. In 1977, he received the John Bates Clark Medal of the American Economic Association, a prize awarded every two years to the economist under the age of 40 who is judged to have made the greatest contribution to economic science. He is the author of more than 300 research articles in economics.
Dr. Feldstein is a director of two corporations (American International Group and Eli Lilly), a Governor of the Smith-Richardson Foundation, and an economic adviser to several businesses and government organizations in the United States and abroad. He is a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal.
Martin Feldstein is a graduate of Harvard College and Oxford University. He was born in New York City in 1939. His wife, Kathleen, is also an economist. The Feldsteins have two grown daughters.
AP Photo
December 24, 2008
"Defense Spending Would Be Great Stimulus"
Op-Ed, Wall Street Journal
By Martin Feldstein, George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University
"A temporary rise in DOD spending on supplies, equipment and manpower should be a significant part of that increase in overall government outlays. The same applies to the Department of Homeland Security, to the FBI, and to other parts of the national intelligence community."
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."
AP Photo
November 18, 2008
"How to Help People Whose Home Values Are Underwater"
Op-Ed, Wall Street Journal
By Martin Feldstein, George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University
"The increased supply of homes for sale will create a vicious cycle, further depressing house prices, further raising the number of homes with negative equity, and weakening the balance sheets of financial institutions. This is the primary cause of the dysfunctional credit markets. None of the existing proposals to help homeowners with negative equity would eliminate the incentive to default."
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November 18, 2008
"A Chapter For Detroit To Open"
Op-Ed, Washington Post
By Martin Feldstein, George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University
"The simplest solution is to allow GM and the others to file for bankruptcy. If the companies file under Chapter 11, they would be able to continue producing cars, and the workforce would remain employed while the firms reorganized. The firms would also be able to get short-term credit under bankruptcy protection."
AP
October 30, 2008
"The Stimulus Plan We Need Now"
Op-Ed, Washington Post
By Martin Feldstein, George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University
"Further legislation to deal with the economic crisis should not wait until the new president takes office. Fortunately, the president-elect will be a senator and can propose legislation without waiting to be sworn in as president. Immediately after Nov. 4, the winner could, and should, take the lead in the legislative process."
AP Photo
October 4, 2008
"The Problem Is Still Falling House Prices"
Op-Ed, Wall Street Journal
By Martin Feldstein, George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University
Martin Felstein discusses the falling prices of housing in the current economic crisis, and the negative impact on individuals with mortgages and financial institutions and individuals currently paying off a mortgage, and the implications of the new legislation on this issue.
AP Photo
September 29, 2008
"Problems run deeper than Wall Street"
Op-Ed, The Korea Herald
By Martin Feldstein, George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University
"With less than two months remaining before America's presidential election, much attention is focused on the state of the American economy and the challenges that it will present to the next president."
AP Photo
September 18, 2008
The Power of Oil Consumers
Op-Ed
By Henry A. Kissinger and Martin Feldstein, George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University
The oil-consuming nations are in a position to shape both the global economic and political balance, provided they coordinate and, to some extent, pool their efforts. America should play a major role in this effort. Rather than wait passively for the next blow to fall, the major consuming nations -- the Group of Seven, together with India, China and Brazil -- should establish a coordinating group to shift the long-term trends of supply and demand in their favor and to end the blackmail of the strong by the weak.
September 2, 2008
"John McCain Has a Tax Plan to Create Jobs"
Op-Ed, The Wall Street Journal
By Martin Feldstein, George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University and John B. Taylor
"John McCain's tax policies are designed to create jobs, increase wages and allow all Americans -- especially those in the hard-pressed middle class -- to keep more of what they earn. His plan achieves these goals in three important ways."
August 27, 2008
"How to shore up America's crumbling housing market"
Op-Ed, Financial Times
By Martin Feldstein, George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University
"The risk of a downward spiral of house prices is the primary danger facing the American economy. Because of the structure of securitised mortgage finance, this risk has the potential to cause a global financial crisis. Both of these problems will remain until a new policy brings stability to house prices."
