The federal deficit has reached historic levels in recent years, even before Congress passed the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) in March 2020. Lawrence H. Summers, former Secretary of the Treasury, and Maya MacGuineas, President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, joined moderator Betsey Steveson, professor of economics and public policy at University of Michigan, to discuss whether the growing federal deficit is sustainable for the United States economy. The October 7, 2020 virtual event included discussion from the panelists on the growing debate among economists and policymakers about whether the federal deficit presents a danger to the overall health of the U.S. economy.
The event was sponsored by the University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, and co-sponsored by the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation and the West Michigan Policy Forum.
Watch the Program Here
When
October 7, 2020
Program Supporters
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library & Museum
About Maya MacGuineas
Maya MacGuineas is the president of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Her areas of expertise include budget, tax, and economic policy. As a leading budget expert for the past twenty years and a political independent, she has worked closely with members of both parties and serves as a trusted resource on Capitol Hill. MacGuineas testifies regularly before Congress and has published broadly, including regularly in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Atlantic, and numerous other outlets. She also appears regularly as a commentator on television.
MacGuineas oversees a number of the Committee’s projects including the grassroots coalition Fix the Debt; the Committee’s Fiscal Institute; and FixUS, a project seeking to better understand the root causes of our nation’s growing divisions and deteriorating political system, and to work with others to bring attention to these issues and the need to fix them. Her most recent area of focus is on the future of the economy, technology, and capitalism. Previously, MacGuineas worked at the Brookings Institution and on Wall Street, and in the spring of 2009 she did a stint on The Washington Post editorial board, covering economic and fiscal policy. MacGuineas serves on a number of boards and is a native Washingtonian.
About Betsey Stevenson
Betsey Stevenson is a Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the University of Michigan. Stevenson is a labor economist who publishes widely about the labor market and the impact of public policies on outcomes both in the labor market and for families. Her research explores women's labor market experiences, the economic forces shaping the modern family, and how these experiences and forces influence each other. She served as the chief economist of the U.S. Department of Labor from 2010 to 2011, participating as the secretary's deputy to the White House economic team.
About Lawrence H. Summers
Lawrence H. Summers is the Charles W. Eliot University Professor and President Emeritus of Harvard University. During the past two decades, he has served in a series of senior policy positions in Washington, D.C., including the 71st Secretary of the Treasury for President Clinton, Director of the National Economic Council for President Obama and Vice President of Development Economics and Chief Economist of the World Bank.
He received a bachelor of science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1975 and was awarded a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1982. In 1983, he became one of the youngest individuals in recent history to be named as a tenured member of the Harvard University faculty. In 1987, Mr. Summers became the first social scientist ever to receive the annual Alan T. Waterman Award of the National Science Foundation (NSF), and in 1993 he was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal, given every two years to the outstanding American economist under the age of 40.
He is currently the Charles W. Eliot University Professor at Harvard University and the Weil Director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at Harvard’s Kennedy School.
