The Daily Bulletin Archive

In 2010, Harvard economists Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff presented their paper "Growth in a Time of Debt," which showed that economic growth would drop significantly if government debt exceeded 90 percent of GDP. Their results were used by politicians around the world to support severe cuts in government spending known as austerity. What if their results were wrong?

A year ago, professors Michael Ash and Robert Pollin and graduate student Thomas Herndon from the University of Massachusetts Amherst found an error in Reinhart and Rogoff's data (among other issues) and published a critique, thus setting off a global economic brouhaha.

Robert Pollin, a distinguished professor of economics, will discuss the UMass critique of the Rogoff-Reinhart paper, as well as the political firestorm it created, on Friday, April 25, from noon to 1:30 p.m. in Bulger Communication Center South 2. His talk is open to all.