Christina Romer: The global economic crisis and inequality

Though the post-crisis recession has ended in most countries, that doesn’t mean the pain is gone. Many families are still suffering from lower incomes and diminished employment prospects.

There is much that policymakers got right in the response to the crisis, but also much that could and should have been done better.

The surest way to raise incomes for struggling families is to nurture economic growth.

Christina Romer

Although the acute effects of the 2008 global economic crisis have passed for most countries, the crisis has caused lasting damage to standards of living in many advanced countries and exacerbated trends toward stagnating incomes for poor and middle-class households. What can this episode teach us about the effects of financial crises and how best to design the economic policy response?

Professor Christina Romer, former Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Obama, reflects on these questions, and their implications for the future direction of economic policy and reform.

Recorded live for the UNSW Grand Challenge on Inequality.

About Christina Romer

Christina Romer was the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers for the Obama Administration from 2008-2010. During this time she helped formulate the American plan for recovery from the 2008 recession and the Obamacare health reform legislation.

She is a Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley and co-director of the Program in Monetary Economics at the National Bureau of Economic Research. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and recipient of Berkeley’s Distinguished Teaching Award. She has been a contributing editor for Bloomberg Television and a regular contributor to the New York Times, Economic View column.