The Council of Economic Advisers: 70 years of advising the president
Past Event
Panel 1: The CEA in Moments of Crisis
Panel 1: The CEA in Moments of Crisis
Panel 2: The CEA and Policymaking
Panel 3: Current Economic Policy Issues
The Council of Economic Advisers: 70 years of advising the president
The White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) was created by Congress in 1946 to advise the president on ways “to foster and promote free competitive enterprise” and “to promote maximum employment, production and purchasing power.” President Truman, who signed the Employment Act of 1946 into law, was unenthusiastic about the Council and didn’t nominate members for nearly six months. Yet the CEA, comprised of three individuals whom Congress says are to be “exceptionally qualified,” has not only survived but also prospered for 70 years and remains an important part of the president’s economic policy decision making.
On February 11, the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at Brookings marked this anniversary by examining the ways the CEA and other economists succeed and fail when they set out to advise elected politicians and tap the expertise of some of the “exceptionally qualified” economists who have chaired the Council over the past four decades.
>> Read Roger Porter’s remarks.
Agenda
Welcome
Jason Furman
Former Brookings Expert
Aetna Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy - Harvard University
Nonresident Senior Fellow - Peterson Institute for International Economics
David Wessel
Director - The Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy
Senior Fellow - Economic Studies
Opening Remarks
Roger Porter
IBM Professor of Business and Government, Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government - Harvard Kennedy School of Government
Session Materials
Panel 1: The CEA in Moments of Crisis
David Wessel
Director - The Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy
Senior Fellow - Economic Studies
Alan Greenspan
President - Greenspan Associates
Austan Goolsbee
Robert P. Gwinn Professor of Economics - University of Chicago Booth School of Business
R. Glenn Hubbard
Dean and Russell L. Carson Professor of Finance and Economics - Columbia Business School
Alan B. Krueger
Bendheim Professor of Economics and Public Affairs - Princeton University
Break
Panel 2: The CEA and Policymaking
Ruth Marcus
Former Brookings Expert
Columnist and Deputy Editorial Page Editor - The Washington Post
Katharine Abraham
Distinguished University Professor - University of Maryland
Martin Neil Baily
Senior Fellow Emeritus - Economic Studies, Center on Regulation and Markets
Martin Feldstein
George F. Baker Professor of Economics - Harvard University
President Emeritus - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
Randall Kroszner
Deputy Dean for Executive Programs; Norman R. Bobins Professor of Economics - University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Panel 3: Current Economic Policy Issues
Ben S. Bernanke
Distinguished Senior Fellow - Economic Studies - The Brookings Institution
Michael Boskin
Senior Fellow - Hoover Institution
Maurice Obstfeld
Professor of Economics - University of California, Berkeley
Concluding Comments
Jason Furman
Former Brookings Expert
Aetna Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy - Harvard University
Nonresident Senior Fellow - Peterson Institute for International Economics
More Information
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