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Simon Johnson

Simon Johnson is the Ronald A. Kurtz (1954) Professor of Entrepreneurship at MIT's Sloan School of Management. He is also a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, D.C., a co-founder of BaselineScenario.com, a widely cited website on the global economy, and is a member of the Congressional Budget Office's Panel of Economic Advisers.

Mr. Johnson appears regularly on NPR's Planet Money podcast in the Economist House Calls feature, is a weekly contributor to NYT.com's Economix, and has a video blog feature on The New Republic's website. He is co-director of the NBER project on Africa and President of the Association for Comparative Economic Studies (term of office 2008-2009).

From March 2007 through the end of August 2008, Professor Johnson was the International Monetary Fund's Economic Counsellor (chief economist) and Director of its Research Department. At the IMF, Professor Johnson led the global economic outlook team, helped formulate innovative responses to worldwide financial turmoil, and was among the earliest to propose new forms of engagement for sovereign wealth funds. He was also the first IMF chief economist to have a blog.

His PhD is in economics from MIT, while his MA is from the University of Manchester and his BA is from the University of Oxford.

Visit: The Baseline Scenario




Simon Johnson's Latest Articles | 101

Economic Donkeys

Sep 13, 2009| 1

Early in the First World War, British generals decided to attack German trenches with an initial light bombardment, followed by infantry walking in close order across... Read »

The Forthcoming G20, IMF Meetings: What To Expect?

Sep 8, 2009| 

As we wade through a long line of international economic meetings – G20 ministers of finance last week, G20 heads of government in Pittsburgh coming up, IMF-World... Read »

Don’t Kill the Goose that Laid the Golden Egg

Sep 5, 2009| 

As the Lehman anniversary approaches, defenders of the financial sector struggle into position – partly in response to your comments (also here). They offer three... Read »

Is Modern Finance More Like Electricity or Junk Food?

Sep 1, 2009| 1

Is modern finance more like electricity or junk food? This is, of course, the big question of the day. If most of finance as currently organized is a form of electricity,... Read »

Which Bernanke? Whose Bubble?

Aug 25, 2009| 

Ben Bernanke will be nominated for a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve.  But which Bernanke are we getting?  There are at least three. The Bernanke... Read »

Waiting for the Fed’s Next Apology

Aug 14, 2009| 

In November 2002, Ben Bernanke apologized – for the Fed’s role in causing the Great Depression of the 1930s.  “I would like to say to Milton [Friedman] and... Read »

Richard Parsons’s Portfolio

Aug 12, 2009| 

According to Bloomberg, Richard Parsons – the chair of Citigroup (NYSE:C) since February – now owns stock in the company worth, at yesterday’s close, about... Read »

It’s About Productivity and Rent-Seeking

Aug 11, 2009| 

The usual concern about the US-China balance of economic and political power is couched in terms of our relative international payments positions.  We’ve run... Read »

Credit Conditions in the Absence of Consumer Protection

Aug 10, 2009| 

Even some of our most sophisticated commentators doubt a link between consumer protection and any macroeconomic outcomes.  Consumer protection, in this view, is... Read »

How to Blow a Bubble

Aug 7, 2009| 1

Matt Taibbi has rightly directed our attention towards the talent, organization, and power that together produce damaging (for us) yet profitable (for a few) bubbles.... Read »

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