Amity Shlaes
Encyclopedia
Amity Ruth Shlaes is an American author
and columnist
from New York
, who writes about politics and economics.
magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in English in 1982.
Shlaes writes a syndicated
column for Bloomberg News
. She is a senior fellow in economic history at the Council on Foreign Relations
. Her many appearances on television and radio include commentary on public radio for Marketplace
.
Shlaes wrote columns for the Financial Times
for five years, until September, 2005. She was a co-winner of the International Policy Network
's Bastiat Prize
for Journalism in 2002. Earlier, she worked at the Wall Street Journal, where she was a member of the editorial board
. She has written for The New Yorker
, The American Spectator
, Commentary Magazine, Foreign Affairs
, Forbes
, National Review
, and The New Republic
, among others. Her obituary of Milton Friedman
appeared in The New York Sun.
She was awarded the 2007 Deadline Club award for Opinion writing, and the Newswomen's Club of New York's Front Page Award for her Bloomberg columns.
Ms. Shlaes teaches an MBA course titled the Economics of the Great Depression at NYU/Stern School of Business. She has lectured at numerous institutions, including Brown university. She is the 2009 winner of the Hayek Prize awarded by the Manhattan Institute. She serves as the Chair of the judging panel for the Bastiat Prize for Journalism.
at the time of reunification
. She followed it with The Greedy Hand: How Taxes Drive Americans Crazy and What to Do About It (ISBN 0-375-50132-0).
Her most recent national best-seller is The Forgotten Man: A New History of The Great Depression
(ISBN 0-06-093642-8) devoted to the study of the Great Depression in the United States
and the New Deal
. This book advances a thesis that both Presidents Herbert Hoover
and Franklin Delano Roosevelt promoted economic policies that were counterproductive and prolonged The Great Depression, in part because of the uncertainty created by inconsistent policymaking. It was a New York Times Bestseller for 19 weeks.
, with the American Enterprise Institute
, wrote in the National Review
that The Forgotten Man was "The finest history of the Great Depression ever written."
By contrast, economist Paul Krugman
has criticized Shlaes's book and taken issue with its central tenet that New Deal policies exacerbated the Great Depression. Krugman wrote of "a whole intellectual industry, mainly operating out of right-wing think tanks, devoted to propagating the idea that FDR actually made the Depression worse.... But the definitive study of fiscal policy in the 1930s, by the MIT economist E. Cary Brown, reached a very different conclusion: Fiscal stimulus was unsuccessful 'not because it does not work, but because it was not tried'." Krugman also specifically accused Shlaes in his New York Times op-ed column of disseminating "misleading statistics";
Shlaes responded to Krugman in the Wall Street Journal, saying that, for her estimates of employment and unemployment during the period, she had used the Lebergott/Bureau of Labor Statistics series. She wrote that statistican Stanley Lebergott "intentionally did not include temporary jobs in emergency programs -- because to count a short-term, make-work project as a real job was to mask the anxiety of one who really didn't have regular work with long-term prospects". Shlaes said that if the Obama administration "proposes F.D.R.-style recovery programs, then it is useful to establish whether those original programs actually brought recovery. The answer is, they didn’t."
Writing in Forbes
, Hudson Institute
fellow Diana Furchtgott-Roth first lays out Shlaes's view: "She [Shlaes] points out that federal spending during the New Deal did not restore economic health. Unemployment stayed high and the Dow Jones Industrial average stayed low." After then explaining Krugman's position that "the New Deal failed to spend enough money to achieve full employment," Furchtgott-Roth concludes "the new president needs to listen to many voices."
Journalist Jonathan Chait of the New Republic has called the book self-contradictory, misleading, and inaccurate, notwithstanding its enormous popularity among conservatives. Novelist and essayist John Updike
criticized the book as "a revisionist history of the Depression".
The International Herald Tribune
review by David Leonhardt
comments: "With 75 years of hindsight, surely we can all agree that Roosevelt’s vision was imperfect. Yes, he helped build many pillars of the modern economy — Social Security, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the modern Federal Reserve and more. He also understood the folly of Hoover’s protectionism and pursued a more open trade policy. And his public works slowly, if unevenly, provided employment. (As the historian Eric Rauchway has noted in Slate, Shlaes exaggerates joblessness in the 1930s by counting many people who worked in relief programs as unemployed.) But other attempts to fine-tune the economy truly did fail. From today’s vantage point, the worst of them may have been farm subsidies, which essentially live on, giving a handout to agribusiness while raising the cost of food for everyone else and hurting poor farmers around the world."
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
and columnist
Columnist
A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....
from New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, who writes about politics and economics.
Education and career
Amity Shlaes graduated from Yale UniversityYale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in English in 1982.
Shlaes writes a syndicated
Print syndication
Print syndication distributes news articles, columns, comic strips and other features to newspapers, magazines and websites. They offer reprint rights and grant permissions to other parties for republishing content of which they own/represent copyrights....
column for Bloomberg News
Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg L.P. is an American privately held financial software, media, and data company. Bloomberg makes up one third of the $16 billion global financial data market with estimated revenue of $6.9 billion. Bloomberg L.P...
. She is a senior fellow in economic history at the Council on Foreign Relations
Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...
. Her many appearances on television and radio include commentary on public radio for Marketplace
Marketplace (radio program)
Marketplace is a radio program that focuses on business, the economy, and events that influence them. Hosted by Kai Ryssdal, the show is produced and distributed by American Public Media, in association with the University of Southern California...
.
Shlaes wrote columns for the Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
for five years, until September, 2005. She was a co-winner of the International Policy Network
International Policy Network
The International Policy Network is a global think tank headquartered in the City of London. It defines itself as a non-partisan, non-profit organization, but has also been described as a "corporate-funded campaigning group"...
's Bastiat Prize
Bastiat Prize
The Bastiat Prize is a journalism award given annually by the International Policy Network. The Bastiat Prize recognizes journalists whose published works "explain, promote and defend the principles of the free society." The award comes with US$15,000....
for Journalism in 2002. Earlier, she worked at the Wall Street Journal, where she was a member of the editorial board
Wall Street Journal Editorial Board
Wall Street Journal Editorial Board members oversee the journal's editorial page and represent the newspaper and its editorial page publicly. The WSJ does not provide details on the exact duties of board members....
. She has written for The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, The American Spectator
The American Spectator
The American Spectator is a conservative U.S. monthly magazine covering news and politics, edited by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. and published by the non-profit American Spectator Foundation. From its founding in 1967 until the late 1980s, the small-circulation magazine featured the writings of authors...
, Commentary Magazine, Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs is an American magazine and website on international relations and U.S. foreign policy published since 1922 by the Council on Foreign Relations six times annually...
, Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
, National Review
National Review
National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...
, and The New Republic
The New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
, among others. Her obituary of Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman was an American economist, statistician, academic, and author who taught at the University of Chicago for more than three decades...
appeared in The New York Sun.
She was awarded the 2007 Deadline Club award for Opinion writing, and the Newswomen's Club of New York's Front Page Award for her Bloomberg columns.
Ms. Shlaes teaches an MBA course titled the Economics of the Great Depression at NYU/Stern School of Business. She has lectured at numerous institutions, including Brown university. She is the 2009 winner of the Hayek Prize awarded by the Manhattan Institute. She serves as the Chair of the judging panel for the Bastiat Prize for Journalism.
Books
Her first book was Germany: The Empire Within (ISBN 0-224-02700-X), about GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
at the time of reunification
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
. She followed it with The Greedy Hand: How Taxes Drive Americans Crazy and What to Do About It (ISBN 0-375-50132-0).
Her most recent national best-seller is The Forgotten Man: A New History of The Great Depression
The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression
The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression is a book by Amity Shlaes and published by HarperCollins. The book is a re-analysis of the events of the Great Depression, generally from a free-market perspective. The book criticizes Herbert Hoover and the Smoot-Hawley Tariff for their role...
(ISBN 0-06-093642-8) devoted to the study of the Great Depression in the United States
Great Depression in the United States
The Great Depression began with the Wall Street Crash of October, 1929 and rapidly spread worldwide. The market crash marked the beginning of a decade of high unemployment, poverty, low profits, deflation, plunging farm incomes, and lost opportunities for economic growth and personal advancement...
and the New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
. This book advances a thesis that both Presidents Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...
and Franklin Delano Roosevelt promoted economic policies that were counterproductive and prolonged The Great Depression, in part because of the uncertainty created by inconsistent policymaking. It was a New York Times Bestseller for 19 weeks.
The Forgotten Man
Steven F. HaywardSteven F. Hayward
Steven F. Hayward is an American author, political commentator, and policy scholar. He argues for libertarian and conservative viewpoints in his writings. He writes frequently on the topics of environmentalism, law, economics, and public policy.-Career:...
, with the American Enterprise Institute
American Enterprise Institute
The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research is a conservative think tank founded in 1943. Its stated mission is "to defend the principles and improve the institutions of American freedom and democratic capitalism—limited government, private enterprise, individual liberty and...
, wrote in the National Review
National Review
National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...
that The Forgotten Man was "The finest history of the Great Depression ever written."
By contrast, economist Paul Krugman
Paul Krugman
Paul Robin Krugman is an American economist, professor of Economics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, Centenary Professor at the London School of Economics, and an op-ed columnist for The New York Times...
has criticized Shlaes's book and taken issue with its central tenet that New Deal policies exacerbated the Great Depression. Krugman wrote of "a whole intellectual industry, mainly operating out of right-wing think tanks, devoted to propagating the idea that FDR actually made the Depression worse.... But the definitive study of fiscal policy in the 1930s, by the MIT economist E. Cary Brown, reached a very different conclusion: Fiscal stimulus was unsuccessful 'not because it does not work, but because it was not tried'." Krugman also specifically accused Shlaes in his New York Times op-ed column of disseminating "misleading statistics";
Shlaes responded to Krugman in the Wall Street Journal, saying that, for her estimates of employment and unemployment during the period, she had used the Lebergott/Bureau of Labor Statistics series. She wrote that statistican Stanley Lebergott "intentionally did not include temporary jobs in emergency programs -- because to count a short-term, make-work project as a real job was to mask the anxiety of one who really didn't have regular work with long-term prospects". Shlaes said that if the Obama administration "proposes F.D.R.-style recovery programs, then it is useful to establish whether those original programs actually brought recovery. The answer is, they didn’t."
Writing in Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
, Hudson Institute
Hudson Institute
The Hudson Institute is an American think tank founded in 1961, in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, by futurist, military strategist, and systems theorist Herman Kahn and his colleagues at the RAND Corporation...
fellow Diana Furchtgott-Roth first lays out Shlaes's view: "She [Shlaes] points out that federal spending during the New Deal did not restore economic health. Unemployment stayed high and the Dow Jones Industrial average stayed low." After then explaining Krugman's position that "the New Deal failed to spend enough money to achieve full employment," Furchtgott-Roth concludes "the new president needs to listen to many voices."
Journalist Jonathan Chait of the New Republic has called the book self-contradictory, misleading, and inaccurate, notwithstanding its enormous popularity among conservatives. Novelist and essayist John Updike
John Updike
John Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic....
criticized the book as "a revisionist history of the Depression".
The International Herald Tribune
International Herald Tribune
The International Herald Tribune is a widely read English language international newspaper. It combines the resources of its own correspondents with those of The New York Times and is printed at 38 sites throughout the world, for sale in more than 160 countries and territories...
review by David Leonhardt
David Leonhardt
David Leonhardt is the Washington bureau chief of The New York Times. He joined The Times in 1999 and wrote the "Economics Scene" column, and for the Times Sunday Magazine. Before coming to The Times, he wrote for Business Week and The Washington Post...
comments: "With 75 years of hindsight, surely we can all agree that Roosevelt’s vision was imperfect. Yes, he helped build many pillars of the modern economy — Social Security, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the modern Federal Reserve and more. He also understood the folly of Hoover’s protectionism and pursued a more open trade policy. And his public works slowly, if unevenly, provided employment. (As the historian Eric Rauchway has noted in Slate, Shlaes exaggerates joblessness in the 1930s by counting many people who worked in relief programs as unemployed.) But other attempts to fine-tune the economy truly did fail. From today’s vantage point, the worst of them may have been farm subsidies, which essentially live on, giving a handout to agribusiness while raising the cost of food for everyone else and hurting poor farmers around the world."
External links
- AmityShlaes.com - Official Site
- The Forgotten Man -- Shlaes's blog at the Council on Foreign Relations
- Shlaes bio at Politico.com
- Video of debate/discussion with Amity Shlaes and Jonathan AlterJonathan AlterJonathan Alter is an American journalist and author who was a columnist and senior editor for Newsweek magazine from 1983 until 2011. He is currently a lead columnist for Bloomberg View, a new commentary website. He is also a contributing correspondent to NBC News, where since 1996 he has appeared...
on Bloggingheads.tvBloggingheads.tvBloggingheads.tv is a political, world events, philosophy, and science video blog discussion site in which the participants take part in an active back and forth conversation via webcam which is then broadcast online to viewers...