Arnold Kling

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Arnold Kling

  • Former economist Federal Reserve and Freddie Mac
  • Member Financial Markets Working Group

Arnold Kling is a member of the Mercatus Center’s Financial Markets Working Group.  As a member of the working group, Dr. Kling draws on his experience at Freddie Mac and the Federal Reserve to increase understanding of monetary policy, the regulation “anomaly,” and the inside workings of America's federal financial institutions.

Dr. Kling served as a senior economist at Freddie Mac from 1986-1994.  He was an economist on the staff of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from 1980-1986.  Previously, he started one of the first commercial websites on the World Wide Web, Homefair.  He has taught economics and statistics at Berman Hebrew Academy in Rockville, Maryland, and economic citizenship at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

Dr. Kling has authored three books, Learning Economics, a collection of essays on economic issues, Under the Radar, and Crisis of Abundance: Rethinking How We Pay for Health Care.  He co-authors EconLog with Brian Caplan, and he is a contributing editor for TCSDaily.  He has testified before Congress on the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  He has been an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute.

Dr. Kling earned his Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

PUBLISHED RESEARCH

Research Paper/Study
Not What They Had in Mind: A History of Policies that Produced the Financial Crisis of 2008 image

Not What They Had in Mind: A History of Policies that Produced the Financial Crisis of 2008

Arnold Kling | Sep 2009
This paper looks at the roots of the current crisis through an analytical framework of bad bets, excessive leverage, domino effects, and 21st-century bank runs. It shows that broad policy areas—including housing policy, capital regulations for banks, industry structure and competition, autonomous financial innovation, and monetary policy—affected elements of this framework to varying, but important degrees. Ultimately, this special study seeks to draw meaningful lessons for policymakers by understanding the complex history, evolution, and integrated nature of financial regulations.

POLICY BRIEFS

The Unintended Consequences of International Bank Capital Standards image

The Unintended Consequences of International Bank Capital Standards

Arnold Kling | Apr 2009
This Mercatus on Policy reviews the unintended consequences of the Basel capital standards, as well as the failure of those standards to achieve the desired result of systemic stability. The fundamental lesson is that capital standards should be viewed in the context of a dynamic process in which the ability of standards to produce desirable behavior necessarily degrades over time.

TESTIMONY & COMMENTS

Congressional Testimony

Collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Arnold Kling | Dec 09, 2008
Arnold Kling, a member of Mercatus's Financial Markets Working Group, testified on the role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the current financial crisis before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on December 9, 2008. In his testimony, Dr. Kling offered a series of lessons from the collapse…

MEDIA CLIPPINGS

The Sacramento Bee

Individual health savings accounts are better

Arnold Kling | Feb 18, 2010
Compelling individuals to purchase health insurance, as President Obama currently wishes, is one approach. But it's the wrong one. And almost certainly unconstitutional.
CSPAN.org

From Poverty to Prosperity

Arnold Kling, Nick Schulz | Feb 04, 2010
Arnold Kling and Nick Schulz's recent book on the new economics of growth and is featured and discussed on CSPAN2's Book tv program.
AOL News

Is Central Planning the Answer to Health Care?

Arnold Kling | Feb 23, 2010
For health care and health insurance, the answer is not more central planning. It's market innovation.
MORE MEDIA CLIPPINGS