Jared Bernstein (born 1955) is an American economist. He is a senior fellow at the

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) is a progressive American think tank that analyzes the impact of federal and state government budget policies. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the Center's stated mission is to "conduct resear ...

. From 2009 to 2011, Bernstein was the chief economist and economic adviser to

Vice President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...

Joe Biden in the Obama Administration. In 2008,

Michael D. Shear Michael D. Shear is an American journalist who is a White House correspondent for ''The New York Times''. He previously worked at ''The Washington Post'', where he was part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning team that covered the Virginia Tech shootin ...

described Bernstein as a progressive and "a strong advocate for workers". Bernstein is currently a Member of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Biden administration.

Early life and education

Bernstein graduated with a bachelor's degree in music from the

Manhattan School of Music The Manhattan School of Music (MSM) is a private music conservatory in New York City. The school offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition, as well as a bachelor's in mu ...

where he studied

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

with

Orin O'Brien Orin O'Brien (born 1935) is an American double bassist. She has been a member of the New York Philharmonic since joining in 1966 under the direction of Leonard Bernstein; she was the first woman to join the orchestra. She was on the faculty at the ...

. He also earned a Master of Social Work from Hunter College as well as a master's degree in philosophy and a PhD in social welfare from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. He is of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

descent.

Career

Bernstein has taught at

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and accredited by the Middle States Commissi ...

, Columbia University, and

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

. His areas of interest include "federal, state and international economic policies, specifically the

middle class squeeze The middle-class squeeze refers to negative trends in the standard of living and other conditions of the middle class of the population. Increases in wages fail to keep up with inflation for middle-income earners, leading to a relative decli ...

income inequality There are wide varieties of economic inequality, most notably income inequality measured using the distribution of income (the amount of money people are paid) and wealth inequality measured using the distribution of wealth (the amount of we ...

and

mobility Mobility may refer to: Social sciences and humanities * Economic mobility, ability of individuals or families to improve their economic status * Geographic mobility, the measure of how populations and goods move over time * Mobilities, a conte ...

, trends in employment and earnings, low-wage labor markets, poverty, and international comparisons." He is known as a critic of free trade agreements such as the

North American Free Trade Agreement The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA ; es, Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte, TLCAN; french: Accord de libre-échange nord-américain, ALÉNA) was an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States that crea ...

(NAFTA).Biden Picks Jared Bernstein as Economic Adviser
Shear, Michael D. Washington Post. December 5, 2008. Accessed December 6, 2008. In 1992, Bernstein started working as a senior official at the

Economic Policy Institute The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit American, left-leaning think tank based in Washington, D.C., that carries out economic research and analyzes the economic impact of policies and proposals. Affiliated with the labor mo ...

(EPI), a liberal think tank with a focus on issues affecting low- and middle-income working people. From 1995 to 1996, he served in the

United States Department of Labor The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for the administration of federal laws governing occupational safety and health, wage and hour standards, unemploym ...

as deputy chief economist. He then returned to the EPI, as senior economist and director of the Living Standards Program, until he was selected by Biden. His designated job on the vice presidential staff is a new position, created because of "the critical nature of the economic challenges facing America." Upon his appointment, some journalists claimed that it "contrasts sharply with the more centrist views of many of president-elect Barack Obama's economic advisers." Bernstein sits on the

Congressional Budget Office The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is a federal agency within the legislative branch of the United States government that provides budget and economic information to Congress. Inspired by California's Legislative Analyst's Office that manages ...

's advisory committee. He is a contributor at the financial news network

CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...

. He also was appointed executive director of the

Middle Class Working Families Task Force The Middle Class Working Families Task Force (MCWFTF) was a United States Federal Government initiative, established in 2009 via presidential memorandum. It was one of the earliest innovations of the Obama-Biden administration. Jared Bernstein was a ...

and is responsible for direct management of the project.

Paul Krugman Paul Robin Krugman ( ; born February 28, 1953) is an American economist, who is Distinguished Professor of Economics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and a columnist for ''The New York Times''. In 2008, Krugman was th ...

, a Nobel laureate in economics and a noted progressive columnist, argued in November 2008 that the centrist makeup of President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

's economic inner circle, the new

Economic Recovery Advisory Board The President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, originally the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board (PERAB), was an ad hoc panel of non-governmental experts from business, labor, academia and elsewhere that President of the United State ...

, could be used to "give progressive economists a voice," and he mentioned Bernstein and fellow EPI economist president

Lawrence Mishel Lawrence Mishel is distinguished fellow at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., a pro-labor think-tank that seeks to advance the interests of American workers. He has been at EPI since 1987, first serving as Research Director, then a ...

among others as progressive economists who might be suitable for the board. On September 5, 2020, Bernstein was announced to be a member of the advisory council of the Biden-Harris Transition Team, which was planning the

presidential transition of Joe Biden The presidential transition of Joe Biden began on November 7, 2020 and ended on January 20, 2021. Unlike previous presidential transitions, which normally take place during the roughly 10-week period between the election in the first week o ...

Dialogue with heterodoxy

In 2018, Bernstein opened a public dialogue with the proponents of the

heterodox In religion, heterodoxy (from Ancient Greek: , "other, another, different" + , "popular belief") means "any opinions or doctrines at variance with an official or orthodox position". Under this definition, heterodoxy is similar to unorthodoxy, w ...

branch of economics of

Modern Monetary Theory Modern Monetary Theory or Modern Money Theory (MMT) is a heterodox * * * * * * macroeconomic theory that describes currency as a public monopoly and unemployment as evidence that a currency monopolist is overly restricting the supply of t ...

,Questions for the MMTers
by Jared Bernstein, January 7, 2018 in which Bill Mitchell, a proponent of MMT, was the first to engage.

Publications

Bernstein's books include ''All Together Now: Common Sense for a Fair Economy'' and ''Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed? (And Other Unsolved Economic Mysteries)''. He coauthored the last nine editions of ''The State of Working America'', an ongoing analysis published since 1988 by the

, as well as coauthoring ''The Benefits of Full Employment: When Markets Work for People'', where he states that " w unemployment by itself cannot address all the inequities in society," and advocates that " her forms of intervention are still needed to assist disadvantaged populations." He is a regular columnist for

The American Prospect ''The American Prospect'' is a daily online and bimonthly print American political and public policy magazine dedicated to American modern liberalism and progressivism. Based in Washington, D.C., ''The American Prospect'' says it "is devoted to ...

online, a contributor to the

financial news television network, and an op-ed writer in the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' and the ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

''. He has also written Diary entries on the

Daily Kos Daily Kos ( ) is a group blog and internet forum focused on the U.S. Democratic Party and liberal American politics. The site includes glossaries and other content. It is sometimes considered an example of "netroots" activism. Daily Kos was f ...

website.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bernstein, Jared 20th-century American Jews Economists from New York (state) American economics writers American male non-fiction writers American columnists Columbia University School of Social Work alumni Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College alumni Manhattan School of Music alumni Obama administration personnel Writers from New York City 1955 births Living people 21st-century American economists Biden administration personnel United States Council of Economic Advisers 20th-century American economists Center on Budget and Policy Priorities 21st-century American Jews Jewish American economists