Edward Gramlich

Edward M. Gramlich(June 18, 1939 – September 5, 2007) was an American economist who served as a member of theFederal Reserve Board of Governorsfrom 1997 to 2005. Gramlich was also an acting director of theCongressional Budget Office.

Edward Gramlich
Member of theFederal Reserve Board of Governors
In office November 5, 1997 – August 31, 2005
President	Bill Clinton George W. Bush
Preceded by	Janet Yellen
Succeeded by	Randall Kroszner
Director of theCongressional Budget Office
Acting
In office April 28, 1987 – December 1987
Preceded by	Rudolph G. Penner
Succeeded by	James L. Blum(Acting)
Personal details
Born	(1939-06-18)June 18, 1939 Rochester, New York,U.S.
Died	September 5, 2007(2007-09-05)(aged 68) Washington, D.C.,U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Education	Williams College(BA) Yale University(MA,PhD)

Gramlich graduated fromWilliams Collegein 1961 and received a master's degree in 1962 and aPh.D.ineconomicsin 1965 fromYale University.He joined theFederal Reserveas a research economist from 1965 to 1970, and was a seniorfellowat theBrookings Institutionfrom 1973 to 1976. He then taught economics and public policy at theUniversity of Michiganfrom 1976 to 1997, including a term as dean of theGerald R. Ford School of Public Policy,and returned to Michigan as a professor in 2005.

Biography

He was appointed to theFederal Reserve Systemby PresidentBill Clintonin 1997 and resigned in August 2005. For much of his term, he was the chair of the Board's Committee on Consumer and Community Affairs.

He was also the chairman of theAir Transportation Stabilization Board,which was created by Congress after the9/11 attacksraised concerns about the survival of the U.S. airline industry. Gramlich had also chaired several other lesser-known stabilization boards created by Congress. In an April 2003 speech to the National Economists Club, he concluded that such boards are an ineffective way to help struggling industries because of the time it takes before help arrives and because the industries that are in need of help often have far deeper problems that the stabilization boards cannot fix.

“If Congress wants to bail out an industry in a hurry, it should bail it out. It takes time to act in this program, which means it's probably not a good program for [emergency] scenarios”, Gramlich told the club.

Gramlich was also formerly the chairman of theNeighborhood Reinvestment Corporationand was seen as an expert onsubprime lendingafter his years as a banking regulator at the Federal Reserve.

Gramlich had other government experience as well, serving as chairman of the Quadrennial Advisory Council on Social Security from 1994 to 1996 and as deputy director, and then acting director, of theCongressional Budget Officein 1986–1987. He also conducted research in 1992 on the economics of major league baseball and wrote a popular textbook on benefit-cost analysis that is in its second edition.

Gramlich highlighted the problems with subprime mortgages prior to the 2007-09 financial crisis. His book,Subprime Mortgages: America's Latest Boom and Bust,was published before the crisis was widely recognized and he had spoken out about them earlier.

Gramlich died on September 5, 2007, fromacute myeloid leukemia.He and his wife, Ruth had two children, Sarah and Robert, both married, and six grandchildren.

External links

• August 2007 New York Times Article regarding Mr. Gramlich
• Press release concerning Gramlich's resignation from the Federal Reserve
• June 9, 2007 WSJ article about Gramlich's efforts to get Greenspan to crack down on predatory lending
• List of postings by Edward Gramlich on the Urban Institute website for "nonpartisan economic and social policy research"Archived2008-10-02 at theWayback Machine
• Statements and Speeches of Edward M. Gramlich
• AppearancesonC-SPAN