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Senior Fellow for Economic History
Contact Info:
Phone: +1-212-434-9500
E-mail: ashlaes@cfr.org
Location:
New York, NY
November 12, 2008
Op-Ed
Bloomberg.com
In this Bloomberg op-ed, Amity Shlaes says that the Democratic Party must decide which is more important-its eagerness to trash the Bush-Reagan tax legacy, or its eagerness for recovery. The planned tax increases would diminish the effect of the billions planned for infrastructure, just as tax increases undermined the Public Works Administration or the Works Project Administration in the 1930s.
See more in Economics
November 10, 2008
Op-Ed
New York Post
Many of the economic reforms under discussion now, including the fiscal stimulus and infrastructure spending, were central in the original New Deal package. But as Amity Shlaes argues in this New York Post op-ed, many of these reforms didn't work well then, and some failed outright.
See more in Financial Crises, U.S. Strategy and Politics
October 29, 2008
Op-Ed
Bloomberg.com
In this Bloomberg op-ed, Amity Shlaes takes a good look at McCain's economic program and finds it to be a serious agenda. McCain remembers a lot about the economic past and is the candidate who can best prevent us from repeating it.
See more in Economics, U.S. Election 2008
October 23, 2008
Op-Ed
Bloomberg.com
A split Washington, in which at least one of the two chambers is led by a party other than the president's, points to a better total return for the S&P 500 than a unified Washington. In this Bloomberg op-ed, Amity Shlaes suggests that markets may be bracing for an all-Democratic Washington.
See more in Economics, U.S. Election 2008
October 9, 2008
Op-Ed
Bloomberg.com
In this Bloomberg op-ed, Amity Shlaes compares the role of accounting rules in the current crisis to the Savings and Loans Crisis of the 1980s. The effect of blaming accounting merely postponed the needed implosion because, as today, the structural problem of insolvency hadn't been addressed.
See more in Economics, U.S. Election 2008
October 1, 2008
Op-Ed
Bloomberg.com
The Treasury bail-out plan threatens to shift financial jobs from New York to Washington. In this Bloomberg op-ed, Amity Shlaes warns critics of New York that taking down Wall Street also weakens them by leaving Washington with no opposition.
See more in Financial Crises, U.S. Strategy and Politics
September 24, 2008
Op-Ed
Bloomberg
The financial crisis could lead the United States to turn inward and ignore challengers such as Vladimir Putin and Hugo Chavez. However, in this Bloomberg op-ed, Amity Shlaes warns against this temptation and points out that foreign issues have a way of becoming immediate as well.
See more in Venezuela, Russian Fed., Economics, Financial Crises, Global Governance
September 20, 2008
Op-Ed
Wall Street Journal
Many policymakers are drawing parallels between today's financial crisis and the Great Depression. But Amity Shlaes points out that the stock market crash of October 1929 and the Great Depression were not the same thing. This has important implications for policy responses.
See more in North America, Economics, Financial Crises
September 19, 2008
Op-Ed
Bloomberg
Amity Shlaes argues that recovery is possible without a bailout, as demonstrated by the case of GM and JP Morgan in the early 1920s. A new rule forcing investment banks to share the cost of a rescue would discourage unnecessary bailouts.
See more in North America, Economics, Financial Crises
September 16, 2008
Op-Ed
Bloomberg.com
In this Bloomberg op-ed, Amity Shlaes suggests that three new rules are needed to lay the path for recovery of Wall Street. No more bailouts, clean up the rating system, and make the U.S. more competitive by lowering corporate taxes.
See more in Financial Crises
September 10, 2008
Op-Ed
Bloomberg.com
In this Bloomberg op-ed, Amity Shlaes argues that Fannie Mae's demise was rooted in 1968, when President Lyndon Johnson moved the Federal National Mortgage Association off-budget. Fannie's fall will remind voters that being off-budget does not eliminate risk to the taxpayer.
See more in Financial Crises
September 9, 2008
Interview
Four CFR experts discuss the U.S. Treasury's takeover of mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, what the move means for financial markets, and what risks remain.
See more in United States, Financial Crises, International Finance
September 3, 2008
Op-Ed
Bloomberg.com
In this Bloomberg op-ed, Amity Shlaes writes that the problem with character candidacies is that they are all about damage control, leaving little time to develop economic and foreign policy goals. To prove character, John McCain and Sarah Palin must fight the issues and escape the character topic.
See more in United States, Economics, U.S. Election 2008
August 27, 2008
Op-Ed
Bloomberg
The Obama campaign is managing to evoke many hopes from past presidential campaigns, leaving candidate McCain with little to campaign on but fear. In this Bloomberg op-ed, Amity Shlaes says that McCain has his own opportunity to call for more realistic hopes at next week's Republican Convention.
See more in Media and Foreign Policy, Presidency
August 19, 2008
Article
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is in some ways an anti-Wikipedia. In this Seattle Post-Intelligencer article, Amity Shlaes writes that when it comes to ideas, and the election, NBER remains a significant source of value creation in the hunt for a philosophy of content.
August 18, 2008
Op-Ed
Washington Post
Five non-monetary missteps were important in making the Depression great, but few seem concerned about replicating these Foolish Five today. In this Washington Post op-ed, Amity Shlaes argues that if lawmakers don't remember these old missteps, they might find that their new recovery legislation imperils our recovery.
August 17, 2008
Op-Ed
Khaleej Times
In this Khaleej Times article, Amity Shlaes and Gaurav Tiwari discuss the foreign policy implications of the resource curse. Comparing the experiences of Russia and India, they conclude with the following lesson: try to avoid being spoiled by oil, and remember that less is better.
August 2, 2008
Op-Ed
Wall Street Journal
The failure of the Doha Round does not call for despair, but turning talks into agreements will require leadership that can endure a long, lurching process, without instant success. In this Wall Street Journal op-ed, Douglas Irwin and Amity Shlaes point to Cordell Hull, Secretary of State from 1933 to 1944, as a model for leadership on trade.
See more in Trade
July 31, 2008
Op-Ed
Bloomberg
In this Bloomberg article, Amity Shlaes writes that the new housing act—hesitantly signed into law by President Bush—may look great at first, but promises future trouble. The bill expands moral hazard, widening incentives to do the wrong thing.
See more in Economics, U.S. Strategy and Politics
July 23, 2008
Op-Ed
Bloomberg
Barack Obama will be given a euphoric reception this week when he speaks at Victory Column in Berlin. But in this Bloomberg article, Amity Shlaes argues that the Berlin cityscape reminds us of the limits of Obama’s foreign policy and that sometimes you encounter war even when you don’t want to.
See more in Germany, Presidency
Explore the international finance regime with a new interactive from CFR's program on International Institutions and Global Governance.
Identifying international threats and acting on them may be the most difficult job for U.S. policymakers. This report
provides an actionable road map for managing international threats before they erupt into crises and makes a strong case that preventive action is not a luxury but a necessity.
For more than a decade, the United States has mostly watched from the sidelines as Asian countries organize themselves into an alphabet soup of new multilateral groups. In this report, the authors review the relationship between pan-Asian and trans-Pacific institutions and suggest policy guidelines for a new U.S. approach to this new Asian landscape.
Complete list of Council Special Reports
Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion-dollar question: How is it that Israel—a country of 7.1 million, only sixty years old, surrounded by enemies— produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK? With the insights of geopolitical experts and investors, the authors examine this nation’s adversity-driven culture to answer this question and offer prescriptions for a global economy on the rebound.
In Forces of Fortune, Vali Nasr presents a paradigm-changing revelation that will transform the understanding of the Muslim world at large. He reveals that there is a vital but unseen rising force in the Islamic world—a new business-minded middle class—that is building a vibrant new Muslim world economy and that holds the key to winning the cold war against Iran and extremists.
In Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, Julia E. Sweig presents a remarkably accessible portrait of Cuba's unique place on the world stage over the past fifty years, including its internal politics, its often fraught relationship with the United States, and its shifting relationship with the global community.
Complete list of CFR Books
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