The Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) is a
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
agency within the
Executive Office of the President
The Executive Office of the President (EOP) comprises the offices and agencies that support the work of the president at the center of the executive branch of the United States federal government. The EOP consists of several offices and agenci ...
established in 1946, which advises the
President of the United States
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...
on economic policy. The CEA provides much of the empirical research for the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
and prepares the publicly-available annual Economic Report of the President.
Activities
Economic Report of the President
The report is published by the CEA annually in February, no later than 10 days after the Budget of the US Government is submitted. The president typically writes a letter introducing the report, serving as an executive summary and used for press coverage. The report proceeds with several hundred pages of qualitative and quantitative research by reviewing the impact of
economic
An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...
activity in the previous year, outlining the economic goals for the coming year (based on the President's economic agenda), and making numerical projections of economic performance and outcomes. Public criticism usually accompanies its release, sometimes attacking the importance placed or not placed on particular data or goals. The data referenced or directly used in the report are from the
Bureau of Economic Analysis
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) of the United States Department of Commerce is a U.S. government agency that provides official economy of the United States, macroeconomic and industry statistics, most notably reports about the gross domestic ...
and U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is a unit of the United States Department of Labor. It is the principal fact-finding agency for the U.S. government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics and serves as a principal agency of t ...
.
History
Establishment
The Truman administration established the Council of Economic Advisers via the
Employment Act of 1946
The Employment Act of 1946 ch. 33, section 2, 60 Stat. 23, codified as , is a United States federal law. Its main purpose was to lay the responsibility of economic stability of inflation and unemployment onto the federal government. The Act stated: ...
to provide presidents with objective economic analysis and advice on the development and implementation of a wide range of domestic and international economic policy issues. It was a step from an "ad hoc style of economic policy-making to a more institutionalized and focused process". The act gave the council the following goals:
In 1949 Chairman
Edwin Nourse
Edwin Griswold Nourse (May 20, 1883 – April 7, 1974) was an American economist who served as the first chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers from 1946 to 1949.
Biography
Born in Lockport, New York, Nourse moved to a western suburb of ...
and member
Leon Keyserling
Leon Hirsch Keyserling (January 11, 1908 – August 9, 1987) was an American economist and lawyer who served as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers from 1950 to 1953. During his tenure, he advised President Harry S. Truman on the economi ...
argued about whether the advice should be private or public and about the role of government in economic stabilization.
[Remarks by Chairman Alan Greenspan. Receipt of the Truman Medal for Economic Policy. Before the Truman Medal Award and Economics Conference, Kansas City, Missouri]
October 26, 2005, Council of Economic Advisers website under President Bush Nourse believed a choice had to be made between "
guns or butter" but Keyserling argued for deficit spending, asserting that an expanding economy could afford large defense expenditures without sacrificing an increased standard of living. In 1949, Keyserling gained support from Truman advisors
Dean Acheson
Dean Gooderham Acheson (pronounced ; April 11, 1893October 12, 1971) was an American statesman and lawyer. As the 51st U.S. Secretary of State, he set the foreign policy of the Harry S. Truman administration from 1949 to 1953. He was also Truman ...
and
Clark Clifford
Clark McAdams Clifford (December 25, 1906October 10, 1998) was an American lawyer who served as an important political adviser to Democratic presidents Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Jimmy Carter. His official governme ...
. Nourse resigned as chairman, warning about the dangers of budget deficits and increased funding of "wasteful" defense costs. Keyserling succeeded to the chairmanship and influenced Truman's
Fair Deal
The Fair Deal was a set of proposals put forward by U.S. President Harry S. Truman to Congress in 1945 and in his January 1949 State of the Union address. More generally. the term characterizes the entire domestic agenda of the Truman administra ...
proposals and the economic sections of
NSC 68 United States Objectives and Programs for National Security, better known as NSC68, was a 66-page top secret National Security Council (NSC) policy paper drafted by the Department of State and Department of Defense and presented to President Harry ...
that, in April 1950, asserted that the larger armed forces America needed would not affect living standards or risk the "transformation of the free character of our economy."
1950s–80s
During the
1953–54 recession, the CEA, headed by
Arthur Burns
Arthur Frank Burns (April 27, 1904 – June 26, 1987) was an American economist and diplomat who served as the 10th chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1970 to 1978. He previously chaired the Council of Economic Advisers under President Dwight ...
deployed non-traditional
neo-keynesian interventions, which provided results later called the "steady fifties" wherein many families stayed in the economic "middle class" with just one family wage-earner. The Eisenhower Administration supported an activist contracyclical approach that helped to establish
Keynesianism
Keynesian economics ( ; sometimes Keynesianism, named after British economist John Maynard Keynes) are the various macroeconomic theories and models of how aggregate demand (total spending in the economy) strongly influences economic output and ...
as a possible bipartisan economic policy for the nation. Especially important in formulating the CEA response to the recession—accelerating
public works
Public works are a broad category of infrastructure projects, financed and constructed by the government, for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community. They include public buildings ( municipal buildings, sc ...
programs, easing credit, and reducing taxes—were Arthur F. Burns and
Neil H. Jacoby
Neil Herman Jacoby (September 19, 1909 – May 31, 1979) was a university professor and public servant and was widely recognized as an expert on matters of taxation, finance, economic policy, and business-government relationships.
Early life
He wa ...
.
Until 1963, during its first seven years the CEA made five technical advances in policy making, including the replacement of a "cyclical model" of the economy by a "growth model," the setting of quantitative targets for the economy, use of the theories of fiscal drag and full-employment budget, recognition of the need for greater flexibility in taxation, and replacement of the notion of unemployment as a structural problem by a realization of a low aggregate demand.
The 1978
Humphrey–Hawkins Full Employment Act
The Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act (known informally as the Humphrey–Hawkins Full Employment Act) is an act of legislation by the United States government.
Impetus and strategy
Unemployment and inflation levels began to rise in the ...
required each administration to move toward
full employment
Full employment is a situation in which there is no cyclical or unemployment#Cyclical unemployment, deficient-demand unemployment. Full employment does not entail the disappearance of all unemployment, as other kinds of unemployment, namely Structu ...
and reasonable price stability within a specific time period. It has been criticized for making CEA's annual economic report highly political in nature, as well as highly unreliable and inaccurate over the standard two or five year projection periods.
1980–present
Since 1980, the CEA has focused on sources of economic growth, the supply side of the economy, and on international issues.
[ In the wake of the Great Recession of 2008–2009, the Council of Economic Advisers played a significant role in supporting the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.]
Organization
The council's chairman is nominated by the president and confirmed by the United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and pow ...
. The members are appointed by the president. As of July 2017, the Council's 18 person staff consisted of a chief of staff (Director of Macroeconomic Forecasting), 15 economists (5 senior, 4 research, 4 staff economists, 2 economic statisticians) and 2 operations staff.Council of Economic Advisers. Staff
Whitehouse.gov, n.d. accessed 29 July 2017 Many of the staff economists are academics on leave or government economists on temporary assignment from other agencies.
Composition
Chairs
Members
*
John D. Clark 1946–1953
*
Roy Blough
Roy is a masculine given name and a family surname with varied origin.
In Anglo-Norman England, the name derived from the Norman ''roy'', meaning "king", while its Old French cognate, ''rey'' or ''roy'' (modern ''roi''), likewise gave rise to ...
1950–1952
*
Leon Keyserling
Leon Hirsch Keyserling (January 11, 1908 – August 9, 1987) was an American economist and lawyer who served as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers from 1950 to 1953. During his tenure, he advised President Harry S. Truman on the economi ...
1950–1953
*
Robert C. Turner 1952–1953
*
Karl A. Fox 1953–1955
*
Neil H. Jacoby
Neil Herman Jacoby (September 19, 1909 – May 31, 1979) was a university professor and public servant and was widely recognized as an expert on matters of taxation, finance, economic policy, and business-government relationships.
Early life
He wa ...
1953–1955
*
Asher Achinstein
Asher Achinstein (December 6, 1900 – September 20, 1998) was an American economist and a member of the Council of Economic Advisors during the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration.
Biography
Achinstein was born on December 6, 1900 in New York Cit ...
1954–1956
*
Walter W. Stewart 1953–1955
*
Joseph S. Davis 1955–1958
*
Paul W. McCracken 1956–1959
*
Karl Brandt
Karl Brandt (8 January 1904 – 2 June 1948) was a German physician and ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) officer in Nazi Germany. Trained in surgery, Brandt joined the Nazi Party in 1932 and became Adolf Hitler's escort doctor in August 1934. A member of ...
1958–1961
*
Henry C. Wallich
Henry Christopher Wallich (; June 10, 1914 – September 15, 1988) was a German American economist who served as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from 1974 to 1986. He previously served as a member of the Council of the Economic ...
1959–1961
*
James Tobin
James Tobin (March 5, 1918 – March 11, 2002) was an American economist who served on the Council of Economic Advisers and consulted with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and taught at Harvard and Yale Universities. He devel ...
1961–1962
*
Kermit Gordon
Kermit Gordon (July 3, 1916 – June 21, 1976) was Director of the United States Bureau of the Budget (now the Office of Management and Budget) (December 28, 1962 – June 1, 1965) during the administration of John F. Kennedy. He continued to serve ...
1961–1962
*
John P. Lewis 1963–1964
*
Otto Eckstein
Otto Eckstein (August 1, 1927 – March 22, 1984) was a German-American economist. He was a key developer and proponent of the theory of core inflation , which proposed that in determining accurate metrics of long run inflation, the transitory pri ...
1964–1966
*
James S. Duesenberry 1966–1968
*
Merton J. Peck
Merton may refer to:
People
* Merton (surname)
* Merton (given name)
* Merton (YouTube), American YouTube personality
Fictional characters
* Merton Matowski, an alternate name for "Moose" Mason, an Archie Comics character
* Lord Merton, ...
1968–1969
*
Warren L. Smith 1968–1969
*
Hendrik S. Houthakker
Hendrik Samuel Houthakker (December 31, 1924 – April 15, 2008) was a prominent American economist.
Life and career
Houthakker was born in Amsterdam to a Dutch-Jewish family. His father was a prominent art dealer. As a teenager he lived thr ...
1969–1971
*
Herbert Stein
Herbert Stein (August 27, 1916 – September 8, 1999) was an American economist, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and a member of the board of contributors of ''The Wall Street Journal''. He was the chairman of the Council ...
1969–1971
*
Ezra Solomon
Ezra Solomon (March 20, 1920 – December 9, 2002) was an influential United States of America, US economist and professor of economics at Stanford University. As a member of the Council of Economic Advisors (1971–1973) during the Richard M Nix ...
1971–1973
*
Marina von Neumann Whitman
Marina von Neumann Whitman (born March 6, 1935) is an American economist, writer and former automobile executive. She is a professor of business administration and public policy at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business as well as ...
1972–1973
*
Gary L. Seevers
Gary may refer to:
*Gary (given name), a common masculine given name, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name
*Gary, Indiana, the largest city named Gary
Places
;Iran
* Gary, Iran, Sistan and Baluchestan Province
;Uni ...
1973–1975
*
William J. Fellner
William John Fellner (born ''Fellner Vilmos'' on May 31, 1905 – September 15, 1983) was a Hungarian-American economist and Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University from 1952 until his retirement in 1973. Born in Budapest, Austria-Hung ...
1973–1975
*
Paul. W. MacAvoy 1975–1976
*
Burton G. Malkiel
Burton Gordon Malkiel (born August 28, 1932) is an American economist and writer most noted for his classic finance book ''A Random Walk Down Wall Street'' (first published 1973, in its 12th edition as of 2019). He is a leading proponent of the ef ...
1975–1977
*
William D. Nordhaus
William Dawbney Nordhaus (born May 31, 1941) is an American economist, a Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University, best known for his work in economic modeling and climate change, and one of the 2 recipients of the 2018 Nobel Memoria ...
1977–1979
*
Lyle E. Gramley
Lyle Elden Gramley (January 14, 1927 – March 22, 2015) was an American economist who served as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from 1980 to 1985. He previously served as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers from 1977 t ...
1977–1980
*
George C. Eads
George C. Eads (born August 20, 1942) is an American economist. He served on the Council of Economic Advisers from 1979 to 1981. He later served as vice president of CRA International.
A native of Clarksville, Texas, Eads earned a degree in eco ...
1979–1981
*
Stephen Goldfeld
Stephen Michael Goldfeld (August 9, 1940 – August 25, 1995) was a Princeton University economics professor and provost who served on the Council of Economic Advisers during the Carter administration.
Goldfeld received a bachelor's degree from ...
1980–1981
*
William A. Niskanen
William Arthur Niskanen (; March 13, 1933 – October 26, 2011) was an American economist. He was one of the architects of Reaganomics, President Ronald Reagan's economic program and contributed to public choice theory. He was also a long-time ch ...
1981–1985
*
Jerry L. Jordan 1981–1982
*
William Poole
William Poole (July 24, 1821 – March 8, 1855), also known as Bill the Butcher, was the leader of the Washington Street Gang, which later became known as the Bowery Boys gang. He was a local leader of the Know Nothing political movement ...
1982–1985
*
Thomas Gale Moore
Thomas may refer to:
People
* List of people with given name Thomas
* Thomas (name)
* Thomas (surname)
* Saint Thomas (disambiguation)
* Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church
* Thomas the A ...
1985–1989
*
Michael L. Mussa
Michael Louis Mussa (April 15, 1944 – January 15, 2012) was an American economist and academic. He was chief economist at the International Monetary Fund from 1991 to 2001 and was a member of the Council of Economic Advisers from 1986 to 1988. ...
1986–1988
*
John B. Taylor
John Brian Taylor (born December 8, 1946) is the Mary and Robert Raymond Professor of Economics at Stanford University, and the George P. Shultz Senior Fellow in Economics at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
He taught at Columbia Univer ...
1989–1991
*
Richard L. Schmalensee
Richard Lee "Dick" Schmalensee (born 1944) is the Howard W. Johnson Professor of Management, Emeritus at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is also Professor of Economics, Emeritus, at the Department of Economics at MIT. He served as the Jo ...
1989–1991
*
David F. Bradford 1991–1993
*
Paul Wonnacott
Gordon Paul Wonnacott (born March 16, 1933) was the coauthor of ''Free Trade Between The United States And Canada: The Potential Economic Effects'' (with R.J. Wonnacott), a study that helped to revive the Canadian debate over free trade and set th ...
1991–1993
*
Alan S. Blinder
Alan Stuart Blinder (, born October 14, 1945) is an American economics professor at Princeton University and is listed among the most influential economists in the world according to IDEAS/RePEc. He is a leading macroeconomist, politically libera ...
1993–1994
*
Carolyn Fischer
Carolyn Fischer is an environmental economist. She was born in Ontario, later moving to the United States. She is a senior fellow for Resources for the Future, as well as being a Canada 150 Research Chair in Climate Economics, Innovation, and Po ...
1994-1995
*
Joseph Stiglitz
Joseph Eugene Stiglitz (; born February 9, 1943) is an American New Keynesian economist, a public policy analyst, and a full professor at Columbia University. He is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001) and the Joh ...
1993–1995
*
Martin N. Baily
Martin Neil Baily (born March 29, 1949) is an economist at the Brookings Institution and formerly at the Peterson Institute. He is best known for his work on productivity and competitiveness and for his tenure as a cabinet member during the Clinto ...
1995–1996
*
Alicia H. Munnell 1996–1997
*
Jeffrey A. Frankel 1997–1999
*
Rebecca M. Blank 1998–1999
*
Yu-Chin Chen
Yu-Chin Chen is an economist and researcher at the University of Washington. Her research fields include international finance, macroeconomics, open economy macroeconomics, trade and development, and applied economics. She has served as a staff ...
1999–2000
*
Robert Z. Lawrence 1999–2001
*
Kathryn L. Shaw
Kathryn L. Shaw is the Ernest C. Arbuckle Professor of Economics at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University. Previously, she was the Ford Distinguished Research Chair and Professor of Economics a ...
2000–2001
*
Mark B. McClellan
Mark Barr McClellan (born June 26, 1963) is the director of the Robert J Margolis Center for Health Policy and the Margolis Professor of Business, Medicine and Health Policy at Duke University. Formerly, he was a senior fellow and director of the ...
2001–2002
*
Randall S. Kroszner
Randall S. Kroszner (born June 22, 1962) is an American economist who served as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from 2006 to 2009. Kroszner chaired Fed's board Committee on Supervision and Regulation of Banking Institutions du ...
2001–2003
*
Kristin J. Forbes 2003–2005
*
Harvey S. Rosen
Harvey Sheldon Rosen (born 29 March 1949) is an American Economist and Academic. Prior to his retirement and subsequent appointment as Emeritus Professor in 2019, Rosen was the John L. Weinberg Professor of Economics and Business Policy at Prin ...
2003–2005
*
Katherine Baicker
Katherine Baicker (born May 23, 1971) is an American health economist best known for the Oregon Medicaid health experiment. She serves as the dean of the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy.
Biography
Baicker received her B.A. ...
2005–2007
*
Matthew J. Slaughter
Matthew J. Slaughter (born 1969) is the Paul Danos Dean and the Earl C. Daum 1924 Professor of International Business at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He is also the founding Faculty Director of Tuck'Center for Global Business ...
2005–2007
*
Donald B. Marron Jr.
Donald Baird Marron Jr. is an American economist, professor and policy advisor and director of the nonpartisan Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center in Washington, D.C. He is the son of the economist and financier Donald B. Marron Sr.
Career
Marro ...
2008–2009
*
Cecilia Rouse
Cecilia Elena Rouse ( ; born December18, 1963) is an American economist who has served as the 30th Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers since March 2021. She is the first Black American to hold this position. Prior to this, she served as the ...
2009–2011
*
Carl Shapiro
Carl Shapiro (born 20 March 1955) is an American economist and academic who serves as the Transamerica Professor of Business Strategy at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business. He is the co-author, along with Hal Varian ...
2011–2012
*
Katharine Abraham
Katharine G. Abraham (born August 28, 1954) is an American economist who is the director of the Maryland Center for Economics and Policy, and a professor of survey methodology and economics at the University of Maryland. She was commissioner of ...
2011–2013
*
James H. Stock
James Harold Stock (born December 24, 1955) is an American economist, professor of economics, and vice provost for climate and sustainability at Harvard University. He is co-author of ''Introduction to Econometrics'', a leading undergraduate te ...
2013–2014
*
Betsey Stevenson
Betsey Ayer Stevenson (born c. 1971) is an economist and Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. Additionally, she is a fellow of the Ifo Institute for Economic Research in Mu ...
2013–2015
*
Maurice Obstfeld
Maurice Moses "Maury" Obstfeld (born March 19, 1952) is a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley and previously Chief Economist at the International Monetary Fund. He is also a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson ...
2014–2015
*
Jay Shambaugh
Jay C. Shambaugh is an American academic and economist who is the nominee to serve as under secretary of the treasury for international affairs.
Education
Shambaugh earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University, a Master of Arts from T ...
2015–2017
*
Sandra Black 2015–2017
*
Richard Burkhauser
Richard Valentine Burkhauser is a Professor Emeritus of Policy Analysis at Cornell University and was a member of the Council of Economic Advisers, CEA, for President Trump. Burkhauser's research often focuses on how public policies affect the eco ...
2017–2019
*
Tomas J. Philipson
Tomas J. Philipson is a Swedish-born American economist who served as the Acting Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Trump administration. He departed from the position and the Council at the end of June, 2020, to return to the Un ...
2017–2020
*
Tyler Goodspeed
Tyler Beck Goodspeed (born 1984/1985) is an American economist and economic historian who was the acting chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers from June 2020 to January 2021. He resigned from his position on January 7, in the wake of the 2 ...
2019–2021
*
Heather Boushey
Heather Marie BousheyThe New York Times''Weddings/Celebrations; Heather Boushey, Todd Tucker'' accessed August 25, 2011. (born 1970) is an American economist. Boushey currently serves as a member of President Joe Biden's Council of Economic Adv ...
2021–present
*
Jared Bernstein
Jared Bernstein (born 1955) is an American economist. He is a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. From 2009 to 2011, Bernstein was the chief economist and economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden in the Obama Admini ...
2021–present
References
Sources
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External links
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List of recent reports by the Council of Economic Advisors*
ttp://eisenhower.archives.gov/Research/Finding_Aids/B.html Papers of Arthur F. Burns, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential LibraryPapers of Raymond J. Saulnier, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library*Economic Report of the President:
Economic Report of the PresidentWhite House
Economic Reports 1947 to presenton
FRASER Fraser may refer to:
Places Antarctica
* Fraser Point, South Orkney Islands
Australia
* Fraser, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb in the Canberra district of Belconnen
* Division of Fraser (Australian Capital Territory), a former federal ele ...
, St. Louis Federal Reserve
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)US Gvt
U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsEconomic Report of the President (1995–present)United States Government Publishing Office
{{Authority control
Executive Office of the President of the United States
*
United States economic policy
United States national commissions
1946 establishments in the United States
Government agencies established in 1946