As the federal government faces a possible shutdown this week, a financial policy expert at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy is available for interviews and commentary to provide insight into the potential economic and fiscal consequences.
John Diamond, the Edward A. and Hermena Hancock Kelly Senior Fellow in Public Finance and the senior director of the Center for Tax and Budget Policy at the Baker Institute, discussed a potential shutdown on the most recent episode of the center’s podcast, “The Two Handed Economist: The Federal Budget Process is Broken.” He explains why a weakening labor market is pushing the Federal Reserve to cut the federal funds rate and unpacked the looming government shutdown. Diamond argues that unless Washington reforms its budget process, we should expect bigger deficits and higher inflation risk.
An adjunct professor of economics at Rice and CEO of Tax Policy Advisers LLC, Diamond’s research interests are federal tax and expenditure policy, state and local public finance and the construction and simulation of computable general equilibrium models. His current research focuses on the economic effects of corporate tax reform, the economic and distributional effects of fundamental tax reform, taxation and housing values, public sector pensions and various other tax and expenditure policy issues.
To schedule an interview with Diamond, contact Avery Franklin, media relations specialist at Rice, at 713-348-6327.