home > the cfr think tank > experts > amity shlaes
Senior Fellow for Economic History
Contact Info:
Phone: +1-212-434-9500
E-mail: ashlaes@cfr.org
Location:
New York, NY
Media downloads:
High-resolution photo (JPG, 678K)
One-page bio (PDF, 56K)
Author of the bestselling The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression. Adjunct associate professor at New York University's Stern School of Business and syndicated columnist for Bloomberg. Current work includes a development of a new history of the 1960s.
Expertise:Germany; Russia; history; economics; U.S. tax policy; relative competitiveness.
Experience:Syndicated Columnist, Bloomberg, Financial Times (2000-2006); Commentator, Marketplace Radio (2005-present); Contributing Editor, The American (2006); Editorial Board Member, Wall Street Journal (1994-2000); Editorial Features Editor, Wall Street Journal (1992-94); Deputy Editorial Features Editor, Wall Street Journal (1990-92); Editorial Features Editor, Wall Street Journal/Europe (1986-90); contributed over the years to Fortune, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Commentary Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Reader’s Digest, Spectator of London, Suddeutsche Zeitung, Die Zeit, National Review, New Republic, Tax Notes, New Yorker, review of the American Academy in Berlin, and Foreign Affairs; appeared on numerous television and radio shows, including NPR’s Morning Edition and On Point, in addition to Marketplace.
Languages:German, French.
Honors:American Institute in Contemporary German Studies (trustee); Jurist for fellows selection, American Academy of Berlin; Frederic Bastiat Prize (for writing on political economy, 2002); J.P. Morgan Fellow of Economics and Finance, American Academy in Berlin; Bradley lecturer, American Enterprise Institute; Finalist for the Loeb (prize in economic commentary).
Selected Publications:Turning Intellect to Influence (coauthor, Reed Press, 2004); “Fluch der Rohstoffe,” Die Zeit (August 2003); “Lulling the Taxpayer: The Long-Standing Consequences of Devices Such as Withholding,” The Future of American Taxation: Essays Commemorating the 30th Anniversary of Tax Notes (Tax Analysts, 2002); The Greedy Hand: How Taxes Drive Americans Crazy and What to Do About It (Random House, 1999); “Give It Back,” Hoover Digest No. 4 (1999); “Germany’s Chained Economy,” Foreign Affairs (September/October 1994); Germany: The Empire Within (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1991).
Related Links:
Podcast: Oil May Not Grease Friendship (Yale Global Online; April 12, 2008)
Current Research Project
Past Research Project
December 31, 2008
Op-Ed
Bloomberg.com
In this Bloomberg op-ed, Amity Shlaes argues against the Kiddie Tax, which discourages venturesome young investors.
See more in Economics, U.S. Strategy and Politics
December 31, 2008
Op-Ed
Washington Post
Amity Shlaes looks at lessons for President-elect Obama in FDR's experimentation during the Great Depression.
See more in Economics, U.S. Strategy and Politics, U.S. Election 2008
December 17, 2008
Op-Ed
Bloomberg.com
Recent research suggests that the high-wage method of fending off economic depression can make a depression more likely. In this Bloomberg op-ed, Amity Shlaes argues that allowing wages to fall would reduce the risk of another depression.
See more in Economics, U.S. Strategy and Politics
December 10, 2008
Op-Ed
Washington Post
In this Washington Post op-ed, Amity Shlaes writes that huge public works projects, such as the one put forward by President-elect Obama, often fail to revive national economies, as evidenced by the example of Japan in the 1990s.
See more in Japan, Economic Development, U.S. Election 2008
December 3, 2008
Op-Ed
Bloomberg.com
After the National Bureau of Economic Research issued a routine report on our recent troubles, the Dow dropped 7.7 percent. In this Bloomberg op-ed, Amity Shlaes suggests that one reason markets reacted so negatively to a backward looking meter is the high standard set by our success in taming the business cycle since World War II.
November 29, 2008
Op-Ed
Wall Street Journal
In this Wall Street Journal op-ed, Amity Shlaes responds to the claim that the trouble with the New Deal was that it didn't spend enough. Instead, she argues that massive government spending takes away jobs in the private sector.
See more in Economics, U.S. Election 2008
November 20, 2008
Audio
Listen to Amity Shlaes, senior fellow for economic history at CFR, discuss her book, The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression and lessons learned for the current financial crisis as part of CFR's Academic Conference Call Series.
See more in Economics, Financial Crises
November 20, 2008
Academic Module
This module features teaching notes by Amity Shlaes, author of The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression, along with other resources to supplement the text. In her book, Miss Shlaes asserts that the real question about the Depression is not whether Roosevelt ended it with World War II, but why the Depression lasted so long. She argues that federal intervention between 1929 and 1940 unnecessarily deepened and prolonged the Depression.
November 19, 2008
Op-Ed
Bloomberg.com
In this Bloomberg op-ed, Amity Shlaes argues that President-elect Obama should not use Keynesian solutions to address the economic crisis. She points out that the Great Society of the mid-1960s, which was the ultimate Keynesian experiment, did not work very well.
See more in U.S. Election 2008
November 17, 2008
Op-Ed
New York Post
In this New York Post op-ed, Amity Shlaes says that the Democratic Party is widening the definition of 'change' by the hour, using the financial crisis as a pretext to advance old social agendas. But government health care and ‘card check' legislation don't have much to do with mortgage crises.
See more in U.S. Strategy and Politics, U.S. Election 2008
June 2007
Book
In this timely book, Amity Shlaes offers a striking reinterpretation of the Great Depression. She traces the mounting agony of the New Dealers and the moving stories of individual citizens who, through their brave perseverance, helped establish the steadfast character we recognize as American today.
See more in United States, Financial Crises
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
In The Closing of the American Border, Edward Alden goes behind the scenes to tell the story of the Bush administration’s struggle to balance security and openness in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
In Termites in the Trading System, Jagdish Bhagwati reveals how the rapid spread of preferential trade agreements endangers the world trading system.
America Between the Wars explores how the decisions and debates of the years between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Twin Towers shaped the events, arguments, and politics of the world we live in today.
Complete list of CFR Books.
This report lays out a thoughtful agenda for U.S. policy toward the Democratic Republic of Congo, arguing that what happens there should matter to the United States--for humanitarian reasons as well as economic and strategic ones.
In this report, CFR Senior Fellow Michael A. Levi analyzes the potential use of deterrence in preventing terrorist groups from acquiring nuclear weapons and recommends a new approach to U.S. declaratory policy, as well as ways to improve U.S. capabilities to determine the sources of terrorist attacks.
Complete list of Council Special Reports.
For more information on the David Rockefeller Studies Program, contact:
Gary Samore
Vice President, Director of Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair
+1.212.434.9627
gsamore@cfr.org
Sebastian Mallaby
Director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for
Geoeconomic Studies, Deputy Director of Studies, and Paul A. Volcker Senior
Fellow for International Economics
smallaby@cfr.org
Janine Hill
Deputy Director of Studies Administration
+1.212.434.9753
jhill@cfr.org
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