Speaker biographies

Jared Bernstein is the director of the living standards program at the Economic Policy Institute, where he researches income inequality and mobility, trends in employment and earnings, low-wage labor markets and poverty, international comparisons, and the analysis of federal and state economic policies. Previously, between 1995 and 1996, he served as deputy chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor. His latest book is Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed? (And Other Unsolved Economic Mysteries) (Berrett-Koehler Publishers 2008), which follows All Together Now: Common Sense for a Fair Economy (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2006). He is also coauthor of eight editions of the book The State of Working America (Economic Policy Institute) and has published extensively in popular and academic venues, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the American Prospect, and Research in Economics and Statistics. Mr. Bernstein is also a contributor to CNBC.

Andrew G. Biggs is a resident scholar at AEI specializing in Social Security and retirement policy. He previously served as the principal deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA), where he oversaw SSA’s policy research efforts and led the agency’s participation in the Social Security Trustees working group. In 2005, he worked on Social Security reform at the White House National Economic Council, and in 2001, he was on the staff of the President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security. Mr. Biggs has written about Social Security reform for numerous publications including the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the Christian Science Monitor.

Charles W. Calomiris is a visiting scholar at AEI and codirector of AEI’s program on financial market deregulation. He is the Henry Kaufman Professor of Financial Institutions at Columbia Business School and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. At AEI, Mr. Calomiris studies banking regulation, corporate finance, and monetary economics. His most recent books are China’s Financial Transition at a Crossroads (Columbia University Press, 2007) and Sustaining India’s Growth Miracle, coedited with Jagdish Bhagwati (Columbia University Press, 2008).

Kevin A. Hassett is the director of economic policy studies and a resident scholar at AEI. He is also a weekly columnist for Bloomberg. Before joining AEI, Mr. Hassett was a senior economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and an associate professor of economics and finance at Columbia Business School. He was an economic adviser to the George W. Bush campaign in the 2004 presidential election and was the chief economic adviser to Senator John McCain during the 2000 presidential primaries. Mr. Hassett currently serves as a senior economic adviser to the McCain 2008 presidential campaign. He has also served as a policy consultant to the U.S. Department of the Treasury during both the former Bush and Clinton administrations. Mr. Hassett is a member of the Joint Committee on Taxation's Dynamic Scoring Advisory Panel. He is the author, coauthor, or editor of six books on economics and economic policy, including Toward Fundamental Tax Reform (AEI Press, 2005). He has published scholarly articles in the American Economic Review, Economic Journal, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Review of Economics and Statistics, the Journal of Public Economics, and many other professional journals. Mr. Hassett's popular writings have been published in the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, USA Today, the Washington Post, and numerous other outlets. His economic commentaries are regularly aired on radio and television, including recent appearances on the Today Show, CBS’s Morning Show, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Hardball, Moneyline, and Power Lunch.

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