Preeminent authority on public policy;
expert on the economy, globalization and the economics of entrepreneurship.


Highlights

Economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin speaks with unmatched authority on economics of public policy in all areas—government fiscal and monetary policy, economic policy, trade, healthcare, and entrepreneurship, to name a few.

Dr. Holtz-Eakin has a long and distinguished career of public service as an economic advisor to policy makers.

He was appointed to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, a 10-member commission that Congress established to investigate the causes of the financial crisis and the collapse of major financial institutions.

He served as the sixth Director of the Congressional Budget Office, the government's main number cruncher, where he won universal respect as a fine, nonpartisan economist.

He also served for 18 months as Chief Economist for the President’s Council of Economic Advisors under President George W. Bush and for two years as Senior Staff Economist for President George H. W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisors.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin served as Director of Domestic and Economic Policy for the John McCain presidential campaign. He has also recently been Senior Fellow at the Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics, the Director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies, and the Paul A. Volcker Chair in International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Dr. Holtz-Eakin has held academic appointments at Columbia and Princeton Universities and was Trustee Professor of Economics at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University. At the Maxwell School, he served as Chairman of the Department of Economics and Associate Director of the Center for Policy Research.

He has advised several state governments and was principal investigator for several federal government agency research initiatives.

Special Program: A Debate on Health Care

In this timely, fireworksy and yet substantive program, Douglas Holtz-Eakin debates Matt Miller on how best to reform health care in America. Douglas Holtz-Eakin is the former economics and domestic policy advisor to John McCain, a former Congressional Budget Office director, and a Fellow of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Miller is a Fortune contributing editor, a former Clinton White House advisor and author of the provocative new book, The Tyranny of Dead Ideas. Holtz-Eakin and Miller will question each other's assumptions and proposals and challenge the audience to decide for themselves what course would best serve their organizations, the nation and its citizens. lively and illuminating clash of perspectives will also reveal some surprising common ground, suggesting where the contours of bipartisan progress might be possible.

Areas of Expertise

• Health Care
• Energy policy, global warming, environmental policy
• Displaced worker policy, labor market adjustment
• Social Security
• Economic forecasting
• The economics of public policy
• Entrepreneurship
• Entrepreneurship & U.S. foreign policy
• Tax policy
• American competitiveness
• Globalization
• Foreign investment and national security

Health Care

Health care is the preeminent policy issue of our time: how can we make sure that all our citizens get the care they need in ways that they as individuals and families and we as a society can sustainably afford? We cannot continue as we are, but where lies the path forward?

Dr. Douglas Holtz-Eakin approaches the problem as a seasoned economist who is deeply familiar with the role policy plays in shaping reform. He offers audiences insights into the market context for healthcare reform and ideas for how we should pay for healthcare, provide better care and control rising costs.

And he urges an incremental strategy for healthcare reform—a series of deliberate, moderate—and correctable—fixes that will cause less disruption, gain more popular acceptance and match the political realities surrounding the issue. Because nobody would get a big fix right.

Globalization

Resistance to globalization is increasing even as globalization itself continues apace. The problem is that it supports capital while pushing downward on workers’ incomes. As a solution, Dr. Holtz-Eakin proposes to use globalization’s positive strengths to offset its weakness: give people who rely for their livelihood solely on their labor some capital to work with. We should support people with low incomes by giving them meaningful capital investments, using public funds when necessary.

Topics

Healthcare

Globalization

Economic Overviews—the U.S., Europe, Asia, India

Credentials

• President, DHE Consulting, LLC
• Member of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission
• Former Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics
• Council on Foreign Relations—(formerly) Director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies and the Paul A. Volcker Chair in International Economics
• Former Director, Congressional Budget Office (2003-2005)
• Former Chief Economist, President’s Council of Economic Advisors—.George W. Bush (2001-2002)
• Former Senior Staff Economist, President’s Council of Economic Advisors—George H.W. Bush (1989-1990)
• Director of Domestic and Economic Policy, McCain/Palin 2008
• Formerly Chairman & Trustee Professor of Economics and Associate Director, Maxwell Center for Policy Research, Syracuse University
• Academic appointments at Columbia and Princeton
• Faculty research fellow and research associate, National Bureau of Economic Research
• Advisor to several state governments; principal investigator for several federal government agency research initiatives
• PhD. Economics, Princeton University

Honors

• Morris and Edna Zele Award for Outstanding Achievement in Policy Research and Public Service (2006)
• TCW Fellow, American Council for Capital Foundation (1998)

Research

Dr. Holtz-Eakin’s research makes him an extremely valuable speaker in the areas of economic policy and entrepreneurship and the economics of the estate and gift tax.

He has an ongoing interest in tax policy, the economics of aging, and the political economy of growth.

His recent research has centered on the economics of fundamental tax reform, productivity effects of public infrastructure, and income mobility in the U.S.