M-RCBG Senior Fellow-Led Study Group: Paul Sheard
Thursday, April 8, 4:30-5:30pm
Zoom meeting. Registration is required.
https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAsf-CurjktHtJWlfzd6L3o5JVhDBYMm6qo
In this Study Group, we will look at how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the US and other major economies, what kind of macroeconomic policy measures were implemented and why, how effective those policies have been, and how the economy and policy are likely to evolve in the next year or two. How bad was the economic hit from COVID and how strong has the recovery been? What kind of monetary and fiscal policy measures have been implemented and how have these policies differed from ones adopted in the past? How concerned should we be about too much government debt piling up and central bank balance sheets getting too bloated? Are the seeds being sown of a return to the high inflation of the past? These are some of the questions we will probe.
Background reading:
Paul Sheard, 2020: “The economics of COVID-19,” Briefings for Britain:
https://briefingsforbritain.co.uk/the-economics-of-covid-19/
Paul Sheard, 2020: “Covid-19 response: Don’t lose sleep over mounting government debt,” BloombergQuint:
https://www.bloombergquint.com/coronavirus-outbreak/covid-19-response-dont-lose-sleep-over-mounting-government-debt
Paul Sheard, 2021: “Don’t worry about inflation,” Briefings for Britain:
https://briefingsforbritain.co.uk/dont-worry-about-inflation/
Paul Sheard is a veteran central bank watcher and markets economist, who has written and spoken widely on QE and unconventional monetary policies. He most recently was Vice Chairman of S&P Global, after serving as Executive Vice President and Chief Economist and earlier Executive Managing Director and Chief Economist of Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services. Previously, he held chief economist positions at Nomura Securities and at Lehman Brothers and was Head of Japan Equity Investments at Baring Asset Management. Earlier, Sheard was Lecturer in Economics at the Australian National University (ANU) and Osaka Gas International Cooperation Associate Professor of Economics at Osaka University, and was Visiting Scholar and Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics at Stanford University and Foreign Visiting Scholar at the Bank of Japan. Sheard is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the New Economic Agenda and was a member of the WEF’s Global Agenda Council on the International Monetary System (2010-2012). He served on committees of the Japanese Government’s Economic Deliberation Council, as an appointee of Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto (1997-98) and as an appointee of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi (1998-1999), and was a member of the oversight board of the Japanese Government’s Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (2001-2006). From 2003 to 2010, he was a non-executive director of ORIX Corporation. In 2006, Sheard was recognized by Advance as one of a 100 Leading Global Australians. Sheard is on the board of the Foreign Policy Association and is a member of the Bretton Woods Committee, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Economic Club of New York. He speaks regularly at conferences around the world, and his views on the global economy and policy issues are frequently cited in the international press. Author or editor of four books and numerous academic articles, Sheard’s 1997 book in Japanese, Mein Banku Shihon Shugi no Kiki: Biggu Ban de Kawaru Nihongata Keiei (The Crisis of Main Bank Capitalism: How Japanese-style Management Will Change with “Big Bang”), won the Suntory-Gakugei Prize in the Economics–Politics Division. Sheard received a BA (Hons) from Monash University and a Master of Economics and PhD in Japanese Economy from the ANU. While a Senior Fellow, he will worked on a project called, “Rethinking and Retooling the Macroeconomic Policy Framework.” Paul Sheard is currently an M-RCBG Research Fellow. Email: paul_sheard@hks.harvard.edu