American Economic Policy in the 1980s ((NBER) National Bureau of Economic Research Conference Reports) - Softcover

The American economy in the 1980s was characterized by a lowering of personal taxes and inflation, spiraling government debt, decreased spending on domestic programmes, and the sharpest post-World War II recession, followed by nearly eight years of strong economic growth. In this study, policymakers in the Reagan administration and academics offer a view of how and why economic policy in the 1980s developed the way it did. The author comments on aspects of policy with which he was closely involved as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers (1982-1984): monetary and exchange rate policy, tax policy and budget issues. Feldstein offers his judgments on these policies and illuminates the policy strategies of the 1980s. The following 11 chapters deal with a variety of domestic and international issues, including developments in regulation and antitrust, as well as monetary, trade, tax and budget policies.

Martin Feldstein (1939-2019) was the George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University. From 1977 to 2008 he was president and CEO of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He was chairman of President Ronald Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers from 1982 to 1984. In 2006 he was appointed to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board under George W. Bush, and in 2009 he was named to the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board by Barack Obama. He was the editor of many books published by the University of Chicago Press.