Two of the alumni who helped shaped the fiscal policies of the 1990s -- Janet Yellen ' 71 Ph.D., former chair of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, and Robert E. Rubin '64 LL.B., former secretary of the U.S. Treasury.under President Clinton -- talked about "Economic Prosperity" during the April 2001 Alumni Leadership Convocation. The discussion was moderated by President Richard C. Levin, who holds the William Beinecke Chair in Economics.
Clinton's advisers recommended that if he "wanted to get out of the economic morass" the nation was experiencing, he must concentrate on "driving the deficit down," recalled Rubin, noting "there was no guarantee it would work."
This, said Yellen, was "a practical application of all the macroeconomic theories I studied at Yale with James Tobin and others," adding "the way it came out was too good to be true."
In fact, there was concern at the time that the market was "over valued," the alumni recalled. Asked if government officials should have "let air out of the fiscal balloon" in the mid-1990s, however, Rubin replied, "What could we have done? You can't have the Secretary of the Treasury saying, 'Sell all your stocks.' " In fact, he contended, "there is an inevitable tendency for markets to go to excess in good times."
Contents
Gala Weekend Concludes University's Tercentennial
Yale at 300
Alumni Presidents
President Levin Launches Joint Initiatives Between Yale and China During Trip
'Gender Matters' Looks at Women's Evolving Roles
Yale Experts Explore Interweaving Histories of Yale and U.S. in DeVane Series
Celebrating Yale's 300th Around the Nation and Around the World
Building Partnerships for a Stronger New Haven
Bush Sr. Recalls Challenges of the Oval Office
Yale Honors Latest 'Son of Eli' in White House
Clinton: U.S. Will Prevail Against Terrorism
Zedillo decries 'shameful trend of increasing polarization'
Alumni economists discuss U.S. economic prosperity
Yale Alumni in the News
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