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WELLESLEY, Mass. -- "Economic Advice and Political Decisions:
A Clash of Civilizations" will be the topic of Wellesley
College's 2002 Goldman Lecture, presented by Alan S. Blinder
on Monday, April 8, at 8 p.m. in the College's Pendleton
West Hall, room 212. It is free and open to the public.
The Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial professor of economics
and co-director of the Center for Economic Policy Studies
at Princeton University, Blinder is the author or co-author
of 12 books, including the textbook Economics: Principles
and Policy, now in its eighth edition, from which more than
a million college students have learned introductory economics.
"Important decisions on economic policy are inherently
political, which creates a generic tension between economic
and political advisers to the president, or to any other
politician," Blinder said. "The lecture will deal with some
of the less-obvious ways in which politic considerations
get in the way of sound economic policy and some of the
shortcomings of the advice that politicians typically hear
from economists."
Blinder has written scores of scholarly articles on topics
such as fiscal policy, monetary policy and the distribution
of income. He served as a member of President Clinton's
original Council of Economic Advisers from Jan. 1993 until
June 1994, in charge of the administration's macroeconomic
forecasting. He also worked intensively on budget, international
trade and health-care issues. From 1985 until joining the
Clinton Administration, he wrote a lively monthly column
in Business Week magazine. He is also a partner in Promontory
Financial Group and vice chairman of the G7 Group.
He has served as vice chairman of the Board of Governors
of the Federal Reserve System and a member of the Board's
committees on Bank Supervision and Regulation, Consumer
and Community Affairs, and Derivative Instruments. He earned
an A.B. degree at Princeton University, an M.Sc. at London
School of Economics and a Ph.D. at Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, all in economics.
At Princeton, he chaired the Department of Economics from
1988 to 1990 and founded Princeton's Center for Economic
Policy Studies. He has taught there since 1971.
Founded in 1875, Wellesley College has been a leader in
liberal arts and the education of women for 125 years. The
College's 500-acre campus near Boston is home to 2,300 undergraduate
students. For more information on the lecture, call 781-283-2154.
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