Edmund Phelps

Edmund Phelps, 2008

Edmund Strother Phelps, Jr. (born July 26, 1933) is an American economist, and McVickar Professor of Political Economy at Columbia University since 1982. He is also the director of Columbia's Center on Capitalism and Society. He is the winner of the 2006 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Quotes

• The stampede toward “rational expectations” — widely thought to be a “revolution,” though it was only a generalization of the neoclassical idea of equilibrium—derailed the expectations-driven model building that had just left the station. In the end, this way of modeling has not illuminated how the world economy works.
  • Edmund S. Phelps (2007) "Foreword," in Roman Frydman and Michael D. Goldberg, Imperfect Knowledge Economics: Exchange Rates and Risk.

• What theory can we use to get us out of the impending slump quickly and reliably? To use the 'new classical' theory of fluctuations begun at Chicago in the 1970s – the theory in which the "risk management" models are embedded – is unthinkable, since it is precisely the theory falsified by the asset price collapse. The thoughts of some have turned to John Maynard Keynes. His insights into uncertainty and speculation were deep. Yet his employment theory was problematic and the 'Keynesian' policy solutions are questionable at best....At the end of his life Keynes wrote of 'modernist stuff, gone wrong and turned sour and silly'. He told his friend Friedrich Hayek he intended to re-examine his theory in his next book. He would have moved on. The admiration we all have for Keynes's fabulous contributions should not sway us from moving on.
  • Edmund Phelps "Keynes had no sure cure for slumps."in: The Financial Times. Columbia University, November 4, 2008.

• When public spending in the form of transfer payments makes various services and benefits free of charge, work is discouraged. Yet it is precisely Social Security that legislators fear to cut
  • free of charge sayings (?)]
  • Quotes for freshers Party" (?)]
  • Birthday Countdown Quotes" (?)]
  • Birthday Quotes" (?)]

"Which Way Forward for Macroeconomics and Policy Analysis?" 2013

See Roman Frydman#"Which Way Forward for Macroeconomics and Policy Analysis?" 2013