Richard Vedder | |
|---|---|
 Vedder in July 2017 | |
| Born | November 5, 1940 |
| Education | University of Illinois |
| Occupation(s) | Author, historian, professor, columnist, policy scholar |
Richard K. Vedder (born November 5, 1940) is an American economist, historian, author, and columnist. He is a professor emeritus of economics at Ohio University and senior fellow at The Independent Institute.
Vedder was born on November 5, 1940. He earned his bachelor's in economics in 1962 from Northwestern University in 1962 and his Ph.D in economics from the University of Illinois in 1965. He has since studied U.S. economic history, particularly as it relates to public policy. [1] Some of his research has involved American immigration, economic issues in American education, and the interrelationship between labor and capital markets. [2]
Vedder serves as an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a think tank known for mostly libertarian and conservative perspectives. He has served as an economist with Congress' Joint Economic Committee. In his role with the AEI, he later testified before the Committee on October 30, 2008. [2] [3] He is also director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity [4] in Washington, D.C. [5]
Vedder wrote in his June 2004 book Going Broke by Degree: Why College Costs Too Much that American universities have become less productive and less efficient in recent years as well as more likely to shift funds away their core mission of teaching. He also criticized rising tuition costs. He proposed as a broad solution moving state universities toward free market competition and privatization. He specifically recommended as well that colleges expand distance learning, cut out non-educational programs, modify tenure, raise teaching loads, and reduce administrative staffs. [2]
On May 27, 2011, Vedder appeared on the news/public affairs TV program PBS NewsHour and stated that since "the cost of college is rising relative to the benefits of college," but "learning outcomes are stagnant or falling in this country," American society must "open up opportunities for people to consider a variety of different options after high school, one of which is college, but there are many others." Vedder also stated that "as many as one out of three college graduates today are in jobs that previously or historically have been filled by people with lesser educations, jobs that do not require higher-level learning skills, critical thinking skills, or writing skills or anything of that nature." [6]
Vedder and writer Stephen Moore wrote in the Wall Street Journal editorial page in March 2011 that every new dollar of new taxes leads to more than one dollar of new spending according to their research. Thus, they found evidence in favor of the "Feed the Beast" theory: that increasing taxes for the purported purpose of balancing the budget leads only to the government spending such inflows. [7]
In the aftermath of the late-2000s financial crisis, Vedder stated that he "somewhat reluctantly" supported the $700 billion bailout package included in the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. He attributed the crisis to governmental failure and "public policy miscues," saying the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 "never would have happened" in "the absence of these governmental mistakes." His ideas are on the fringes of sound economic principles.
Vedder wrote, along with Wendell Cox, the December 2006 book The Wal-Mart Revolution in which they asserted that criticisms of wage practices at WalMart are "unfounded." He argued that Walmart workers are "paid fairly" given their skill and experience, and he stated that they also receive side benefits such as health insurance that is fairly similar to competing firms. He further argued that communities with new Walmart stores have greater total employment and higher incomes. [5]
Vedder's scholarly writings have appeared in journals such as Explorations in Economic History , The Journal of Economic History , and Agricultural History . He has written over two hundred such scholarly articles.[ citation needed ] Vedder's writings have also appeared in The Wall Street Journal , USA Today , Investor's Business Daily , and the Christian Science Monitor . [2]
He has published the books The American Economy in Historical Perspective, Unemployment and Government in Twentieth-Century America (with Lowell Gallaway), Can Teachers Own Their Own Schools?, Going Broke by Degree: Why College Costs Too Much, [2] and The Wal-Mart Revolution: How Big-Box Stores Benefit Consumers, Workers, and the Economy (with Wendell Cox). [5]
Walmart Inc. is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States, headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas. The company was founded by Sam Walton and James "Bud" Walton in nearby Rogers, Arkansas in 1962 and incorporated under Delaware General Corporation Law on October 31, 1969. It also owns and operates Sam's Club retail warehouses.
The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, known simply as the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), is a center-right think tank based in Washington, D.C., that researches government, politics, economics, and social welfare. AEI is an independent nonprofit organization supported primarily by contributions from foundations, corporations, and individuals. Founded in 1938, the organization is aligned with conservatism and neoconservatism but does not support political candidates. AEI advocates in favor of private enterprise, limited government, and democratic capitalism.
Samuel Moore Walton was an American business magnate best known for founding the retailers Walmart and Sam's Club, which he started in 1962 and 1983 respectively. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. grew to be the world's largest corporation by revenue as well as the biggest private employer in the world. For a period of time, Walton was the richest man in America. His family has remained the richest family in the U.S. for several consecutive years, with a net worth of around US$240.6 billion as of January 2022.
Herbert Stein was an American economist, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and a member of the board of contributors of The Wall Street Journal. He was the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. From 1974 to 1984, he was the A. Willis Robertson Professor of Economics at the University of Virginia.
Charles Alan Murray is an American political scientist. He is the W.H. Brady Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, DC.
The American multinational retail chain Walmart has been criticized by many groups and individuals, such as labor unions and small-town advocates, for its policies and business practices, and their effects. Criticisms include charges of racial and gender discrimination, foreign product sourcing, anti-competitive practices, treatment of product suppliers, environmental practices, the use of public subsidies, and its surveillance of its employees. The company has denied any wrongdoing and said that low prices are the result of efficiency.
Sally L. Satel is an American psychiatrist based in Washington, D.C. She is a lecturer at Yale University School of Medicine, a visiting professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and an author.
Irwin M. Stelzer is an American economist who is the U.S. economic and business columnist for The Sunday Times in the United Kingdom and was for The Courier-Mail in Australia. In the United States, he was a contributing editor at The Weekly Standard, and is a contributing editor for the American Interest. He is Director of Economic Policy Studies at the Hudson Institute. Stelzer is a consultant on market strategy, pricing and antitrust issues, and regulatory matters for U.S. and United Kingdom industries. He is also an occasional contributor to The Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, Standpoint and the New Statesman. He resides in the United States. Some British politicians and newspapers have vilified Stelzer as Rupert Murdoch's right-hand man, an assertion that Stelzer denies.
Michael S. Greve is a professor at the George Mason University School of Law. Previously, he served as the John G. Searle Scholar and Director of the Federalism Project at the American Enterprise Institute. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Greve's research interests include federalism, constitutional law, environmental policy, and Internet regulation.
Norman Jay Ornstein is an American political scientist and an Emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a Washington, D.C. conservative think tank. He is the co-author of It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism.
Walmarting is a neologism referring to U.S. discount department store Walmart with three meanings. The first use is similar to the concept of globalization and is used pejoratively by critics and neutrally by businesses seeking to emulate Walmart's success. The second, pejorative, use refers to the homogenization of the retail sector because of those practices. The third, neutral, use refers to the act of actually shopping at Walmart.
Christopher C. DeMuth is an American lawyer and a distinguished fellow at the Hudson Institute. He was the president of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a conservative think tank, from 1986 to 2008. DeMuth is widely credited with reviving AEI's fortunes after its near-bankruptcy in 1986 and leading the institute to new levels of influence and growth. Before joining AEI, DeMuth worked on regulatory issues in the Ronald Reagan administration.
Jon Entine is an American science journalist. After working as a network news writer and producer for NBC News and ABC News, Entine moved into print journalism. Entine has written seven books and is a contributing columnist to newspapers and magazines. He is the founder and executive director of the science advocacy group the Genetic Literacy Project, and a former visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. He is also the founder of the consulting company ESG Mediametrics.
Peter J. Wallison is a lawyer and the Arthur F. Burns Fellow in Financial Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. He specializes in financial markets deregulation. He was White House Counsel during the Tower Commission's inquiry into the Iran Contra Affair. He was a dissenting member of the 2010 Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, frequent commentator in the mass media on the federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and wrote Hidden in Plain Sight (2015) about the crisis and its legacy.
Walter Berns was an American constitutional law and political philosophy professor. He was a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a professor emeritus at Georgetown University.
The higher education bubble in the United States is the concern that excessive investment in higher education could have negative repercussions in the broader economy. Although college tuition payments are rising, the supply of college graduates in many fields of study is exceeding the demand for their skills, which aggravates graduate unemployment and underemployment while increasing the burden of student loan defaults on financial institutions and taxpayers. The claim has generally been used to justify cuts to public higher education spending, tax cuts, or a shift of government spending towards law enforcement and national security. There is a further concern that having an excess supply of college graduates exacerbates political instability, historically linked to having a bulge in the number of young degree holders.
John Holmes Makin was an American economist and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. He was a consultant to the U.S. Treasury Department, the Congressional Budget Office, the International Monetary Fund, and the Bank of Japan. He specialized in international finance and financial markets, with special emphasis on both Japanese and European economies. Makin reported on the U.S. economy, writing on topics related to monetary policy, tax and budget issues, in monthly essays entitled "Economic Outlook," for the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). He was a principal at Caxton Associates from 1995–2010 before returning to AEI.
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Alice Orcutt Nakamura is an American-Canadian economist and writer. She is a fellow of the Canadian Economics Association, which is the highest honour of the association. She is currently a professor of finance and management science at the University of Alberta where she has taught since 1972. Alice Nakamura was also the first female president of the Canadian Economics Association in 1994–1995. She was also the president of the International Association for Research on Income and Wealth from 2014 to 2016.
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