Simon Johnson

Bestselling Author, "Power and Progress" and "13 Bankers" | Professor of Entrepreneurship, MIT Sloan School of Management
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Simon Johnson is the Ronald A. Kurtz (1954) Professor of Entrepreneurship at the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he is head of the Global Economics and Management group. In 2007-08 he was chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, and he currently co-chairs the CFA Institute Systemic Risk Council. In February 2021, Johnson joined the board of directors of Fannie Mae.

Johnson’s most recent book, with Daron Acemoglu, Power and Progress: Our 1000-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity, explores the history and economics of major technological transformations up to and including the latest developments in artificial intelligence. Johnson makes the case for a society that shares the prosperity of technological advances rather than one where a small group of elites benefit while the majority stagnates.

His previous book, with Jonathan Gruber, Jump-Starting America: How Breakthrough Science Can Revive Economic Growth and the American Dream, explained how to create millions of good new jobs around the U.S., through renewed public investment in research and development. This proposal attracted bipartisan support.

Johnson was previously a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, D.C., a cofounder of BaselineScenario.com, a member of the Congressional Budget Office’s Panel of Economic Advisors, and a member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee. From July 2014 to early 2017, Johnson was a member of the Financial Research Advisory Committee of the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Financial Research (OFR), within which he chaired the Global Vulnerabilities Working Group.

The Quiet Coup” received over a million views when it appeared in The Atlantic in early 2009. His book 13 Bankers: the Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown (with James Kwak), was an immediate bestseller and has become one of the mostly highly regarded books on the financial crisis. Their follow-up book on U.S. fiscal policy, White House Burning: The Founding Fathers, Our National Debt, and Why It Matters for You, won praise across the political spectrum. Johnson’s academic research papers on long-term economic development, corporate finance, political economy, and public health are widely cited.

“For his articulate and outspoken support for public policies to end too-big-to-fail”, Johnson was named a Main Street Hero by the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) in 2013.
Credentials

  • Ronald A. Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship, MIT Sloan School of Management
  • Former Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics
  • Cofounder, BaselineScenario.com
  • Contributing Business Editor, The Huffington Post
  • Economic Counsellor & Director of Research (Chief Economist), IMF (Mar-07 – Aug-08)
  • Member, FDIC’s Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee
  • Member, SEC Advisory Committee on Market Information
  • Member, CBO's Panel of Economic Advisers
  • Research Fellow, Centre for Economic Policy Research
  • Research Associate, NBER
  • BREAD affiliate
  • Member, Advisory Group at the Center for Global Development
  • Member, Advisory Board, CASE in Warsaw
  • Non-resident Research Fellow, Asian Institute for Corporate Governance, Korea University
  • Co-director of the NBER project on Africa
  • Former Assistant Director, IMF's Research Dept
  • President, Association for Comparative Economic Studies
  • Ph.D. in economics; MIT; MA, University of Manchester; BA, University of Oxford

Topics

"White House Burning"

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Videos

AI Tipping Point | Full Documentary | Curiosity Stream
Simon Johnson
Technology and Prosperity. A 1,000-Year Struggle
Simon Johnson
Mapping the Financial Frontier | FMC Keynote
Simon Johnson
Jump-Starting America | MIT Sloan Experts Series
Simon Johnson

Articles

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3 Questions: Shaping the future of work in an age of AI
MIT News
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The generative AI productivity boom is coming, just don’t try to guess when
The Hill
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Dark Offshore Money Threatens Democracy
Project Syndicate
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OpenAI’s drama marks a new and scary era in artificial intelligence
Los Angeles Times
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Choosing AI’s Impact on the Future of Work
Stanford Social Innovation Review
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AI needs to be more 'pro-worker.' These 5 policies can help
MIT Sloan
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Simon Johnson Longlist Interview
Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction
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Policy Insight 123: Can we Have Pro-Worker AI? Choosing a path of machines in service of minds
CEPR
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The Prize announces the 2023 longlist
The Baillie Gifford Prize
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Great Power Competition Today
Project Syndicate
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The Hollywood Writers' AI Fight Is Everyone's Fight
Project Syndicate
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What 1,000 years of history can teach us about making the economy of AI work for everyone
Vox
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Why Are Russian Oil Products Still Begin Sold in America?
Project Syndicate
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Best summer books of 2023: Technology
Financial Times
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The AI Apocalypse?
Project Syndicate
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Will Democracies Stand Up to Big Brother?
Project Syndicate
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Big Tech Is Bad. Big A.I. Will Be Worse.
New York Times
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Strike Talk Podcast - Week 3: MIT’s Simon Johnson On A.I. (Takeaway For Writers: Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid)
Deadline
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An AI challenge only humans can solve
MIT News
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Simon Johnson Says More...
Project Syndicate
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Simon Johnson on stablecoins, artificial intelligence, inequality, and more
Project Syndicate
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Opinion: The writers’ strike is partly about AI. They’re right to worry
Los Angeles Times
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ChatGPT is about to revolutionize the economy. We need to decide what that looks like.
MIT Technology Review
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How to Fix the Platform Economy
Project Syndicate
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The Next Stage of the Hot Cold War
Project Syndicate
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Russia's Financial Crisis Must Come Sooner
Project Syndicate
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The Regulator US Financial Markets Need
Project Syndicate
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America Comes Roaring Back
Project Syndicate

Podcasts

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Economics
World Economy
US Economy
Artificial Intelligence
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