WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION
Erskine Bowles, Co-Chair, Aspen Economic Strategy Group
FRAMING REMARKS
Wally Adeyemo, Deputy Secretary US Department of the Treasury
PANEL DISCUSSION: CHALLENGES FACING US FIRMS IN THE POST-PANDEMIC ECONOMY
Wally Adeyemo
Deputy Secretary US Department of the Treasury
WALLY ADEYEMO was sworn in as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury on March 26, 2021. He has spent the majority of his career in public service, convening governments, companies, and organizations to move together toward achieving common goals. Adeyemo comes to the Treasury Department from the Obama Foundation, where he served as President beginning in August 2019. Before joining the Obama Foundation, Adeyemo served as a Senior Advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and at Blackrock. In the Obama-Biden Administration, Adeyemo served as Deputy National Security Adviser for International Economics and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, where he worked as President Barack Obama’s Senior International Economic Advisor and was responsible for coordinating the policymaking process related to international finance, trade and investment, energy, and environmental issues. Adeyemo also served as President Obama’s representative to the G7 and G20.
Erskine Bowles
Co-Chair, Aspen Economic Strategy Group
ERSKINE B. BOWLES began his business career at Morgan Stanley and went on to found and lead Bowles, Hollowell, Conner, which became the preeminent investment bank focused on middle market mergers and acquisitions. He subsequently co-founded the middle market private equity firm Carousel Capital, served as a senior advisor for Credit Suisse First Boston, was a partner with the global buyout firm Forstmann Little & Co. and the chairman of the board of advisors of BDT Capital Partners. He previously served on the boards of Morgan Stanley (Lead Director), First Union Corporation, Merck, VF, Cousins Properties (Lead Director), Norfolk Southern Corporation, General Motors, Belk and Facebook. In his public sector career, Erskine served in the Clinton Administration as SBA Administrator, Deputy White House chief of staff, and chief of staff. During his time in the White House, he negotiated the first balanced budget in a generation.
Chad P. Bown
Reginald Jones Senior Fellow, Petersen Institute for International Economics
CHAD P. BOWN is Reginald Jones Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, DC. With Soumaya Keynes, he cohosts Trade Talks, a podcast on the economics of international trade policy. Bown previously served as senior economist for international trade and investment in the White House on the Council of Economic Advisers and most recently as a lead economist at the World Bank. He was a tenured professor of economics at Brandeis University, where he held a joint appointment in the Department of Economics and International Business School for 12 years. He has also spent a year in residence as a visiting scholar in economic research at the World Trade Organization (WTO) Secretariat in Geneva. Bown received a BA magna cum laude in economics and international relations from Bucknell University and a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Jason Furman
Aetna Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy, Harvard University
JASON FURMAN is the Aetna Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy jointly at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) and the Department of Economics at Harvard University. He is also nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. This followed eight years as a top economic adviser to President Obama, including serving as the 28th Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers from August 2013 to January 2017, acting as both President Obama’s chief economist and a member of the cabinet. During this time Furman played a major role in most of the major economic policies of the Obama Administration. Previously Furman held a variety of posts in public policy and research. In public policy, Furman worked at both the Council of Economic Advisers and National Economic Council during the Clinton administration and also at the World Bank. Furman holds a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.
Melissa S. Kearney
Neil Moskowitz Professor of Economics, University of Maryland: Director, Aspen Economic Strategy Group
MELISSA S. KEARNEY is the Neil Moskowitz Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland. She is also director of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group; a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research; and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Kearney’s scholarly research focuses on poverty, inequality, and social policy in the United States. Her work is published is leading academic journals and is frequently cited in the press. She is a senior editor of the Future of Children, an editorial board member of the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Journal of Economic Literature, and Demography, and she was previously co-editor of the Journal of Human Resources. She serves on advisory boards for the Notre Dame Wilson-Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities and the Smith Richardson Foundation. She teaches Public Economics at both the undergraduate and Ph.D. level and holds a B.A. in Economics from Princeton and a Ph.D. in Economics from MIT.
Michael R. Strain
Director, Economic Policy Studies; Arthur F. Burns Scholar in Political Economy, American Enterprise Institute
MICHAEL R. STRAIN is Director of Economic Policy Studies and Arthur F. Burns Scholar in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute. An economist, Dr. Strain’s research focuses on labor economics, public finance, and social policy, and his papers have been published in academic and policy journals. He also writes frequently for popular audiences, and his essays and op-eds have been published by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and National Review, among others. He is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. Before joining AEI, Strain worked at the U.S. Census Bureau and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Cornell.
Holly Wade
Executive Director, National Federation of Independent Business Research Center
HOLLY WADE is the executive director of the NFIB Research Center, where she has 17 years of experience conducting original research on the small business sector focusing on small business economic conditions, business operations, and public policy issues impacting small firms. She produces NFIB’s monthly Small Business Economic Trends publication, the Covid-19 Small Business survey series, and surveys on topics related to small business operations. She is also a frequent media spokesperson on the small business economy and related public policy issues. Since 2020, Ms. Wade has been offering a regular webinar series for small business owners nationwide, helping owners navigate through the federal loan and tax credit programs. She is also a former member of the Board of Directors of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE).
