Bradley Distinguished Lecture Series
Upcoming Event:U.S. Fiscal Policy: Short-Term and Long-Term Challenges
Featuring:
James Poterba
- Mitsui Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Pfister Hotel
$40 per person
Please register by Wednesday, November 4, 2009
The federal budget deficit is expected to exceed ten percent of GDP in 2009, the highest level since the end of World War II. A sharp cyclical decline in revenues, coupled with an unprecedented fiscal stimulus package, have led to this situation and drawn substantial interest to both the near-term and the longer-term fiscal outlook. In the short-run, the process by which many stimulus initiatives are wound down and decisions about tax policy will be key determinants of fiscal stance. For the longer-term, the growth paths of outlays on Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will be key influences on fiscal balance.
This lecture will place the current fiscal situation and the long-term outlook in both historical and international context, and discuss the range of policy options that are available to bring long-term expenditures and revenues into closer balance.
About the SpeakerJames Poterba is the Mitsui Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). NBER is the nation's leading non-profit, non-partisan organization devoted to economic research. Dr. Poterba's research focuses on public economics, the study of government tax and expenditure programs and their impact on the economy. In 2005, he served on the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform, which considered ways to make the U.S. tax system fairer, simpler, and more efficient. He is President of the National Tax Association and Vice President of the American Economic Association. He is also an independent trustee of the College Retirement Equity Fund (CREF) and the TIAA-CREF Mutual Funds. Dr. Poterba holds an undergraduate degree in economics from Harvard University and a Doctor of Philosophy in Economics from Oxford University.
The Bradley Distinguished Lecture Series, sponsored by The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and UWM’s Sheldon B. Lubar School of Business, brings nationally and internationally respected scholars, policy experts, and business leaders to speak on major issues pertaining to the political economy of globalization, entrepreneurship, and global economic competition. The series provides insights regarding the profound implications of globalization of markets, capital, production and information, and the forces that affect U.S. global economic competitiveness and policy making.
