Council of Economic Advisers

For the body that advises the Scottish Government, see Council of Economic Advisers (Scotland).

Council of Economic Advisers

Agency overview
Formed	1946
Preceding agencies	Office of Price Administration (World War II) Council on Wage and Price Stability (Carter era)
Headquarters	Eisenhower Executive Office Building
Employees	About 35
Agency executives	Jason Furman, Chairman Jay Shambaugh, Member Sandra Black, Member
Parent agency	Executive Office of the President of the United States
Website	Council of Economic Advisers

The Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) is an agency within the Executive Office of the President that advises the President of the United States on economic policy. The CEA provides much of the objective empirical research for the White House and prepares the annual Economic Report of the President.

Organization

The current Chairman of the CEA is Jason Furman, who was appointed by President Obama on June 10, 2013. The two current Members are Jay Shambaugh and Sandra Black.

The council's Chairman is nominated by the president and approved by the United States Senate. The Members are appointed by the president. The staff of the council consists of a Chief of Staff as well as about 20 academic economists, plus three permanent economic statisticians.

History

The council was established by the Employment Act of 1946 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. In 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.

In 1949 a dispute broke out between Chairman Edwin Nourse and member Leon Keyserling. Nourse believed a choice had to be made between "guns or butter" but Keyserling argued that an expanding economy permitted large defense expenditures without sacrificing an increased standard of living. In 1949 Keyserling gained support from powerful Truman advisors Dean Acheson and Clark Clifford. 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 proposals and the economic sections of National Security Council Resolution 68 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."

During the 1953–54 recession, the CEA, headed by Arthur Burns deployed non-traditional neo-keynesian interventions, which provided results later called the "steady fifties" wherein many families stayed in the economic "middleclass" with just one family wage-earner. The Eisenhower Administration supported an activist contracyclical approach that helped to establish Keynesianism as a possible bipartisan economic policy for the nation. Especially important in formulating the CEA response to the recession—accelerating public works programs, easing credit, and reducing taxes—were Arthur F. Burns and Neil H. Jacoby.

The 1978 Humphrey–Hawkins Act required each administration to move toward full employment and reasonable price stability within a specific time period. It has made 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.

Past chairs and members

Past chairs include:

• Alan Krueger 2011–2013
• Austan Goolsbee 2010–2011
• Christina Romer 2009–2010
• Edward Lazear 2006–2009
• Ben S. Bernanke 2005–2006
• Harvey S. Rosen 2005
• N. Gregory Mankiw 2003–2005
• R. Glenn Hubbard 2001–2003
• Martin Neil Baily 1999–2001
• Janet Yellen 1997–1999
• Joseph E. Stiglitz 1995–1997 (member from 1993–1995)
• Laura D'Andrea Tyson 1993–1995
• Michael J. Boskin 1989–1993
• Beryl W. Sprinkel 1985–1989
• Martin Feldstein 1982–1984
• Murray L. Weidenbaum 1981–1982
• Charles L. Schultze 1977–1981
• Alan Greenspan 1974–1977
• Herbert Stein 1971–1974
• Paul W. McCracken 1956–1959 (member); 1969–1971
• Arthur M. Okun 1968–1969
• Gardner Ackley 1964–1968
• Walter W. Heller 1961–1964
• Raymond J. Saulnier 1956–1961
• Arthur F. Burns 1953–1956
• Leon H. Keyserling 1949–1950 (acting chair); 1950–1953
• Edwin G. Nourse 1946–1949

Past staff members include:

• John D. Clark 1946–1953
• Roy Blough 1950–1952
• Robert C. Turner 1952–1953
• Karl A. Fox 1953–1955
• Neil H. Jacoby 1953–1955
• Walter W. Stewart 1953–1955
• Joseph S. Davis 1955–1958
• Paul W. McCracken 1956–1959
• Karl Brandt 1958–1961
• Henry C. Wallich 1959–1961
• James Tobin 1961–1962
• Kermit Gordon 1961–1962
• John P. Lewis 1963–1964
• Otto Eckstein 1964–1966
• James S. Duesenberry 1966–1968
• Merton J. Peck 1968–1969
• Warren L. Smith 1968–1969
• Hendrik S. Houthakker 1969–1971
• Herbert Stein 1969–1971
• Ezra Solomon 1971–1973
• Marina von Neumann Whitman 1972–1973
• Gary L. Seevers 1973–1975
• William J. Fellner 1973–1975
• Paul. W. MacAvoy 1975–1976
• Burton G. Malkiel 1975–1977
• William D. Nordhaus 1977–1979
• Lyle E. Gramley 1977–1980
• George C. Eads 1979–1981
• Stephen Goldfeld 1980–1981
• William A. Niskanen 1981–1985
• Jerry L. Jordan 1981–1982
• William Poole 1982–1985
• Thomas Gale Moore 1985–1989
• Michael L. Mussa 1986–1988
• John B. Taylor 1989–1991
• Richard L. Schmalensee 1989–1991
• David F. Bradford 1991–1993
• Paul Wonnacott 1991–1993
• Alan S. Blinder 1993–1994
• Martin N. Baily 1995–1996
• Alicia H. Munnell 1996–1997
• Jeffrey A. Frankel 1997–1999
• Rebecca M. Blank 1998–1999
• Robert Z. Lawrence 1999–2001
• Kathryn L. Shaw 2000–2001
• Mark B. McClellan 2001–2002
• Randall S. Kroszner 2001–2003
• Kristin J. Forbes 2003–2005
• Harvey S. Rosen 2003–2000
• Katherine Baicker 2005–2007
• Matthew J. Slaughter 2005–2007
• Donald B. Marron Jr. 2008–2009
• Cecilia Rouse 2009–2011
• Carl Shapiro 2011-2012
• Katharine Abraham 2011-2013
• James H. Stock 2013-2014
• Betsey Stevenson 2013-2015
• Maurice Obstfeld 2014-2015

External links

• Council of Economic Advisers home page
• Records of the Office of the Council of Economic Advisors, 1953-61, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
• Papers of Arthur F. Burns, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
• Papers of Raymond J. Saulnier, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library