We held our 20th Annual Washington Policy Seminar in Washington, DC last Thursday. Economists and policymakers from notable institutions joined the MA team for a full day of conversation about fiscal and monetary policy. The central issue was balancing the need for short-term stimulus with longer-term risks and consequences.
MA’s Senior Managing Director and Co-Founder Joel Prakken started the seminar by outlining the current fiscal situation and the macroeconomic consequences under two broad cases: a sustainable scenario and a “train wreck” scenario. Chris Varvares, MA’s Senior Managing Director and Co-Founder, expanded these themes by moderating a discussion on the economic and financial consequences of extremely large deficits. This panel consisted of Bill Gale, The Arjay and Frances Miller Chair in Federal Economic Policy at Brookings Institution, and John H. Burbank III, Chief Investment Officer at Passport Capital, LLC, who offered their views on how much mega-deficits could impair longer-term economic viability.
Turning to the political context of deficit reduction, Chris invited Maya MacGuineas, President of Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and Director of the Fiscal Policy Program at the New America Foundation, and Keith Hennessey, Former Director of the National Economic Council, to discuss the political environment for deficit reduction efforts.
The afternoon session began with a presentation by Jason Furman, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council and Deputy Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, who laid out the views from the Administration: “Medium-term Deficit Reduction at a Time of Short-Run Economic Challenge.” This was complemented by a
presentation from Doug Elmendorf, Director of the Congressional Budget Office, who spoke about reconciling the trade-off between immediate fiscal stimulus and longer-term fiscal sustainability.
The seminar concluded with a fascinating conversation between two monetary policy experts: MA’s Larry Meyer, Director of MA’s Monetary Policy Insights service and former Federal Reserve Governor, and Adam Posen, External Member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England and Senior Fellow at The Peterson Institute for International Economics. They started by comparing monetary policy conduct in the United States and the United Kingdom, and proceeded to have a
spirited conversation, about
quantitative easing, decision-making practices, and
inflation dynamics.
After the seminar, participants were invited to join us at a reception at our Washington, DC office.
A video of the conference is available to MA clients.
MA’s 109th Quarterly Outlook Meeting will be held on Wednesday, December 8 in Washington, DC. Keep checking this space for more details!
Click here for more information to request an invitation for MA’s next conference.Contact Macroeconomic Advisers
