The COVID-19 pandemic damages the U.S. and the world economy and puts policymakers in an unfamiliar dilemma. Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) such as social distancing slow the spread of [...]

Housing finance policy has been built during and for times of crisis. Just look at the long list of government actions related to the financing of housing [...]

This blog post is based on a talk presented at the Shadow Open Market Committee on February 11, 2022. The opinions expressed are my own and not those of the MIT Golub Center for Finance and Policy.

As the keynote speaker at a recent conference of the International Consortium on Government Financial Management held in Washington DC, I had the opportunity to discuss with representatives from over 40 countries one of the primary challenges facing governments around the world – citizen engagement.

While attending a conference of government financial managers in July 2015, I had the opportunity to participate on a panel to consider ways to improve the U.S. budget process and was amazed at the energy and enthusiasm for the topic. With hundreds of attendees cramming a large breakout session room...

It is the rare journalist who tackles the topic of government credit programs and their ills. Rarer still is a popular account that accurately brings these complicated issues to life. Kudos to Michael Grunwald, who writing for Politico, did just that. I highly recommend his article. (Note that to ge...

A group of top financial economists from universities around the country, including many of my colleagues at Sloan, released a letter this week urging Congress to [...]

What is the best mix of cash and credit assistance to combat the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, and what are the principles that should guide those choices? For policymakers [...]

High rates of debt growth by local governments are a cause for concern in any country. In China, where recent turmoil in the equity and foreign-exchange markets has put a spotlight on that country’s economy and growth prospects, increasing levels of borrowing by provincial and other lower levels of ...

Greece recently failed to pay $1.7 billion due to the IMF, thereby becoming the first developed country to default on an IMF loan. That missed payment represents only a portion of the approximately $23 billion in IMF credit outstanding to Greece, suggesting the ultimate losses to the Fund could be m...