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A Conversation with Martin Feldstein

Charlie Rose interviews economist Martin Feldstein

Martin Feldstein is President and CEO of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Thursday, February 21, 2008 | 04:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)
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Recession Arbiter Names New Head
February 21, 2008; Page A13

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The National Bureau of Economic Research said James Poterba of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will succeed Martin Feldstein as its president.

Among economists, the NBER is a prominent clearinghouse for ideas through conferences and electronically circulated working papers. Among others, it may be best-known as the home of official arbiter of the beginning and end of U.S. recessions.

Mr. Poterba, currently head of MIT's economics department and director of public economics research at the bureau, will take over when Mr. Feldstein retires in July.

Mr. Feldstein has headed the NBER since 1977.

Posted by: Barry Ritholtz | Feb 21, 2008 6:44:33 AM

There it is again....the myth of the ever-expanding pie. When will they learn?

[Grain farmers will need to harvest record crops every year to meet increasing global food demand and avoid famine...``We keep going to the cupboard without replacing and so there is enormous pressure on agriculture to have a record crop every year,'' Doyle said. ``We need to have a record crop in 2008 just to stay even with this very low inventory situation.'']
"Famines May Occur Without Record Crops This Year, Potash Says "
Bloomberg.com
Reporter: Christopher Donville

Posted by: ideogenetic | Feb 21, 2008 8:09:35 AM

He had me until he started talking about taxes and wages. Same old screw the little guy rhetoric. Give me a break!

Posted by: twistytop | Feb 21, 2008 12:07:25 PM

Thanks for putting this up, Barry. It's a hopeless mishmash of clear-headed realism ruined by hackneyed Wall St. optimism at the end. I'd be optimistic about life, too, if I had a central bank that just funneled money my way to fix all of my deliberate financial screw-ups and I never had to pay the price for anything I ruined.

Posted by: Tom F. | Feb 21, 2008 1:00:03 PM

: - ) tax law changes
$200K not many people above that level

unemployment with prison and county jail population? homeless? underemployed?

I'm thinking ALL this is moneys answer to the budget shortfalls in an increasing population # ... WWIII for the general population ... hunker down ALL

America in decline? think happy thoughts.
Martys pie, we're paying way to much for that pie at National Bureau of Economic Research, cause its full of pits.

Just wait and see what globalism does without a population # down sizing.

Posted by: Greg0658 | Feb 21, 2008 1:25:29 PM

I think the world economic pie _is_ getting bigger. There is a lot of wealth being created in emerging countries, like mining, growing crops, building up infrastructure.

But the American slice while growing in nominal size too has a negative growth relative to the whole pie. Not that it is a bad thing, wealth distribution and competition are always welcome.

Posted by: mhm | Feb 21, 2008 1:42:50 PM

Why does it seem like Mr. Feldstein views the world as a giant beehive with himself as the beekeeper?

A world where most of us are only worker/drone bees, expected to be happy to live our lives attendant to the queen's every need?

Where the success of the hive is only measured by how many times the queen mates and how many pints of honey we produce?

Just wonderin'.

Posted by: engineer al | Feb 22, 2008 3:02:14 AM

the image of feldstein i have is this very intelligent professor in front of a white board full of numbers, formulae, and equations. then he turns around to face the audience, pauses and says, 'yes, this means everyone should get a five hundred dollar check and the economy will be fine.'

all those smarts and learning and this is what he comes up with, it makes you wonder who got us here, and what they would recommend if it was a real problem.

Posted by: rexl | Feb 22, 2008 2:04:13 PM