Jared Bernstein - Biography

Jared Bernstein is an American economist who previously served as Chief Economist and Economic Policy Adviser to Vice President Joseph Biden in the Obama Administration. In early 2009 Bernstein was named Executive Director of the newly formed White House Middle Class Working Families Task Force. He was also a member of the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry. Bernstein is considered to represent a liberal, pro-labor perspective.

1 Education
2 Career
3 Publications
4 External links

Education

Bernstein attended Ridgefield High School in Ridgefield, Connecticut, and graduated from the Manhattan School of Music with Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts where he studied double bass with Orin O'Brien. He earned a Masters Degree in Social Work from the Hunter School of Social Work, and, from Columbia University, he received a Masters Degree in Philosophy and Ph.D. in Social Welfare.

Career

Bernstein's areas of interest include "federal, state and international economic policies, specifically the middle class squeeze, income inequality and mobility, trends in employment and earnings, low-wage labor markets, poverty, and international comparisons." He is known as a critic of free trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). He has taught at Howard University, Columbia University and New York University. In 1992, he was hired at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a think tank with ties to organized labor and a focus on issues affecting low- and middle-income workers. From 1995-1996, he served in the Department of Labor as Deputy Chief Economist. He then returned to the EPI, where he was senior economist and director of the Living Standards Program when selected by Biden.

He sits on the Congressional Budget Office's advisory committee and is employed as contributor at the financial news network CNBC. His designated job on the Vice Presidential staff is a new position, created because of "the critical nature of the economic challenges facing America." Upon his appointment, journalists noted that he holds more liberal views than many of Obama's economic advisers. He also was appointed the Executive Director of the Middle Class Working Families Task Force and is responsible for direct management of the project. Paul Krugman, a Nobel laureate in economics and a noted liberal columnist, argued in November 2008 that, given the centrist makeup of President Barack Obama's economic inner circle, the new Economic Recovery Advisory Board could be used to "give progressive economists a voice," and mentioned Bernstein and fellow EPI economist, and EPI president, Lawrence Mishel among others as progressive economists who might be suitable for the board.

Bernstein left the Obama Administration in 2011, and joined the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities as a senior fellow.

Publications

Bernstein's books include All Together Now: Common Sense for a Fair Economy and Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed? (And Other Unsolved Economic Mysteries). He coauthored the last nine editions of "The State of Working America" as well as "The Benefits of Full Employment: When Markets Work for People."

He is a regular columnist for the American Prospect online, and he has published op-eds in the New York Times and the Washington Post. He has also written diaries on the Daily Kos.