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Lee Ohanian

Author Biography

Lee Ohanian is a professor of economics at UCLA. Ohanian is an expert in the area of economic crises, including the Great Depression, and has been a consultant to several Federal Reserve banks, international central banks, and the National Science Foundation. .

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• The Fed Fears Deflation More Than Inflation

  In his interesting post, Scott Sumner argues that deflation is more likely than inflation, and that if it occurred, it would damage the economy by effectively raising labor costs to firms, forcing them to lay off more people and worsening our unemployment problems. In contrast, I view deflation...

  Blog posts | Jun 29, 2009

• Fed Policy On Inflation: As Good as It Gets

  Scott Sumner argues that the Federal Reserve erred in not expanding the money supply even more than it did last fall, and that monetary policy caused the financial crisis to worsen and our economic crisis to deepen. He suggests that a two percent inflation rate would be superior to the current...

  Blog posts | Jul 1, 2009

• No, Inflation Is Not the Key to This Recovery

  Scott Sumner is a leading advocate of having the Fed increase inflation from its current rate of about zero to two percent. He forcefully argues that if this could be achieved, then our economy would improve substantially. But in my view, a small increase in inflation wouldn't improve economic...

  Blog posts | Jul 2, 2009

• We Need Inflation to Spur a Recovery

  Lee Ohanian makes a very persuasive argument that zero percent inflation does not harm an economy. Sometimes that's true, but I don't think it's the case this time. Because we are all consumers, we naturally think lower prices are good. Yet the U.S. just experienced the lowest inflation in 58...

  Blog posts | Jul 2, 2009