Dean Baker (born July 13, 1958) is an American
macroeconomist who co-founded the
Center for Economic and Policy Research
The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) is an American think tank that specializes in economic policy. Based in Washington, D.C. CEPR was co-founded by economists Dean Baker and Mark Weisbrot in 1999.
Considered a left-leaning orga ...
(CEPR) with
Mark Weisbrot. Baker has been credited as one of the first economists to have identified the 2007–08
United States housing bubble
The 2000s United States housing bubble or house price boom or 2000s housing cycle was a sharp run up and subsequent collapse of house asset prices affecting over half of the U.S. states. In many regions a Real-estate bubble, real estate bubb ...
.
Early life and education
Baker was born into a Jewish family and grew up in the
Lake View neighborhood of
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
, Illinois.
In 1981, Baker graduated from
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the e ...
with a bachelor's degree in history with minors in economics and philosophy. In 1983, he received a master's degree in economics from the
University of Denver
The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1864, it has an enrollment of approximately 5,700 undergraduate students and 7,200 graduate students. It is classified among "R1: D ...
. In 1988, he received a PhD from the
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
in economics.
Economics career
Baker was a lecturer at the
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
from 1988 to 1989 and an assistant professor of economics at
Bucknell University
Bucknell University is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal-arts college in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1846 as the University at Lewisburg, it now consists of the College of Arts a ...
from 1989 to 1992. From 1992 to 1998, he was an economist at the
Economic Policy Institute
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) is a 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) non-profit think tank based in Washington, D.C., that carries out economic research and analyzes the economic impact of policies and proposals. Affiliated with the Labor un ...
. During this time, he published a paper with
Mark Weisbrot in a journal of
evolutionary economics
Evolutionary economics is a school of economic thought that is inspired by evolutionary biology. Although not defined by a strict set of principles and uniting various approaches, it treats economic development as a process rather than an equil ...
.
In 1999, Baker and Weisbrot co-founded the
Center for Economic and Policy Research
The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) is an American think tank that specializes in economic policy. Based in Washington, D.C. CEPR was co-founded by economists Dean Baker and Mark Weisbrot in 1999.
Considered a left-leaning orga ...
(CEPR), a US independent, nonpartisan
think tank
A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...
that produces economic research on US national affairs (social security, healthcare, the US national budget), and international topics (the global economy, the
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution funded by 191 member countries, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It is regarded as the global lender of las ...
or Latin America policy).
In that same year Baker was a senior research fellow at the Preamble Center for Public Policy.
Baker has consulted with officials from the
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...
and provided testimony to the
Joint Economic Committee
The Joint Economic Committee (JEC) is one of four standing joint committees of the U.S. Congress. The committee was established as a part of the Employment Act of 1946, which deemed the committee responsible for reporting the current economic co ...
of the U.S. Congress and to the
OECD
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; , OCDE) is an international organization, intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and international trade, wor ...
's Trade Union Advisory Council.
From 1996 to 2006, Baker was the author of a weekly online commentary on the economic reporting of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' and ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'', the ''Economic Reporting Review''. Since 2006, he has continued this commentary on his blog ''Beat The Press,'' formerly published at ''
The American Prospect
''The American Prospect'' is a daily online and bimonthly print American political and public policy magazine dedicated to American modern liberalism and Progressivism in the United States, progressivism. Based in Washington, D.C., ''The America ...
'' and now on CEPR's website.
2007–08 United States housing bubble
In 2006 Baker predicted that "plunging housing investment will likely push the economy into recession."
[Bezemer, Dirk J, 16 June 2009]
"“No One Saw This Coming”: Understanding Financial Crisis Through Accounting Models"
/ref> That year he published "Recession Looms for the U.S. Economy in 2007", in which he predicted that weakness in the US housing market was likely in 2007 to push the US economy into a recession.
Baker won the Revere Award, along with Steve Keen and Nouriel Roubini, for predicting the crash of the United States housing bubble
The 2000s United States housing bubble or house price boom or 2000s housing cycle was a sharp run up and subsequent collapse of house asset prices affecting over half of the U.S. states. In many regions a Real-estate bubble, real estate bubb ...
and the resulting recession, which occurred from 2007 to 2008. He warned about the coming crisis and the related government policies in multiple articles, op-eds and interviews from 2002 to 2005. Basing his outlook on housing price data sets produced by the U.S. government, Baker asserted that there was a bubble in the US housing market in August 2002, well before its peak, and predicted that the bubble's collapse would lead to recession. His prediction for when the recession would start was off by only one quarter.
Regarding the housing bubble, Baker was critical of Federal Reserve chair Alan Greenspan
Alan Greenspan (born March 6, 1926) is an American economist who served as the 13th chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006. He worked as a private adviser and provided consulting for firms through his company, Greenspan Associates L ...
. He has also been critical of the regulatory framework of the real estate and financial industries, the use of financial instruments like collateralized debt obligation
A collateralized debt obligation (CDO) is a type of structured finance, structured asset-backed security (ABS). Originally developed as instruments for the corporate debt markets, after 2002 CDOs became vehicles for refinancing Mortgage-backed se ...
, and U.S. politicians and regulators' performance and conflicts of interest.
Baker opposed the U.S. government bailout of Wall Street banks on the basis that the only people who stood to lose from their collapse were their shareholders and high-income CEOs. Of any hypothetical negative effects of not extending the bailout, he said, "We know how to keep the financial system operating even as banks go into bankruptcy and receivership," citing U.S. government action taken during the S&L crisis of the 1980s. He has ridiculed the U.S. elite for favoring it, asking, "How do you make a DC intellectual look less articulate than Sarah Palin being interviewed by Katie Couric? That's easy. You ask them how failure to pass the bailout will give us a Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
."
''Rigged''
Baker's 2016 book ''Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer'' argues that changing how the U.S. economy has been managed over the past 50 years would add between $2 and 3.7 trillion (in constant 2016 dollars) to the U.S. GDP, between 11 and 20 percent. This is summarized in his Table 8-1:
In ''Rigged'', Baker argues that, for example, focusing more on decreasing unemployment and less on minimizing inflation would primarily benefit the bottom 99%, though the top 1% would get some of those gains. Similarly, Baker says that changes in patent and copyright law over the past 50 years have violated their purpose under the Copyright Clause
The Copyright Clause (also known as the Intellectual Property Clause, Copyright and Patent Clause, or the Progress Clause) describes an enumerated power listed in the United States Constitution ( Article I, Section 8, Clause 8).
The clause, wh ...
of the Constitution: "To promote the progress of science and the useful arts". He concludes that if the U.S. had spent the same amount on research and media with the results being placed in the public domain, everyone would be better off, with the possible exception of the ultra-wealthy. In particular, the world would be healthier not having to pay patent royalties to U.S. pharmaceutical companies.
He also writes that so-called free-trade agreements have exempted doctors and other highly paid professionals, not because of any intrinsic difference in what they do, but because they have more political power than organized labor.
Political activism
As a graduate student at the University of Michigan, Baker was arrested at two sit-ins protesting Representative Carl Pursell's votes for military aid to the Contras
In the history of Nicaragua, the Contras (Spanish: ''La contrarrevolución'', the counter-revolution) were the right-wing militias who waged anti-communist guerilla warfare (1979–1990) against the Marxist governments of the Sandinista Na ...
. In 1986, Baker defeated Donald Grimes in the Democratic primary and ran unsuccessfully against Pursell to represent Michigan's second Congressional district; his candidacy opposed aid to the Contras.
In 2020, Baker endorsed Elizabeth Warren's 2020 presidential campaign.
Personal life
Baker is married to economist Helene Jorgensen. They live in southern Utah and he is a visiting professor at the University of Utah
The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...
.
Bibliography
Selected articles
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Books
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References
Further reading
Dean Baker presentation on 2008–2009 economic trouble at Bucknell University
NPR's ''Fresh Air'' (Audio): "The Key to Economic Stimulus?"
January 13, 2009
August 8, 2008
, January 26, 2009
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110816145548/http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/index.php?main_page=product_video_info&products_id=283705-1&showVid=true C-SPAN's ''Book TV'' (Video): "Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy"], January 27, 2009
''Marketplace'' Public Radio (Audio): We Demand to See More Transparency
March 9, 2009
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Dean Baker: Banks Could Be Big Winners of President Obama’s Foreclosure Prevention Program
– video by ''Democracy Now!
''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long TV, radio, and Internet news program based in Manhattan and hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live ...
''
*
Video (and audio) of debates & discussions involving Baker
on Bloggingheads.tv
Dean Baker argues that the debate over the economy should not be over whether to regulate, but how
in the ''Boston Review
''Boston Review'' is an American quarterly political and literary magazine. It publishes political, social, and historical analysis, literary and cultural criticism, book reviews, fiction, and poetry, both online and in print. Its signature form ...
''
External links
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Dean Baker
at Center for Economic and Policy Research
The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) is an American think tank that specializes in economic policy. Based in Washington, D.C. CEPR was co-founded by economists Dean Baker and Mark Weisbrot in 1999.
Considered a left-leaning orga ...
"Beat The Press"
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Dean
1958 births
21st-century American economists
American economics writers
American male non-fiction writers
Bucknell University faculty
Center for Economic and Policy Research
Economists from Illinois
Economists from Utah
International finance economists
Living people
American macroeconomists
Swarthmore College alumni
University of Denver alumni
University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni
University of Utah faculty
Writers about globalization
Writers from Chicago
Writers from Utah