Should We Worry About Deficits When Interest Rates Are So Low?
Jack Mintz Lecture with Dr. Martin Eichenbaum, Charles Moskos Professor of Economics, Northwestern University
Governments’ current ability to borrow at historically low interest rates creates opportunities and dangers. Opportunities because the cost of financial capital for social investments is low. Dangers because governments may take on unsustainable debt. Do interest rates lower than economic growth rates mean government can borrow and roll over debt without limit? Or do higher debts require future government budget surpluses and/or inflation? What do the answers to these questions mean for potential social investments by Canadian governments?
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The C.D. Howe Institute established the Annual Jack Mintz Lecture in honour of Dr. Jack Mintz’s outstanding achievements in the field of fiscal and tax policy.
Dr. Martin Eichenbaum, Charles Moskos Professor of Economics, Northwestern University
Martin Eichenbaum is the Charles Moskos Professor of economics and the co-director of the Center for International Economics and Development at Northwestern University. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the Econometric Society, a Research Associate of the NBER and an International Fellow of the CD Howe Institute. In addition, he is a Director of the Bank of Montreal (BMO) and serves as a consultant for the IMF and the European Commission. He is also a member of the academic advisory board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Eichenbaum currently serves as the co-editor of the NBER Macro Annual. He was co-editor of the American Economic Review as well as an associate editor of the Journal of Monetary Economics, the American Economic Journal - Macro, and the Journal of Money, Credit and Banking. He has served as a consultant to Goldman Sachs as well as the Federal Reserve Banks of Atlanta, Chicago and San Francisco. He received a PhD in economics from the University of Minnesota.
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