On Jan. 14, 2021, Dr. James Kahn, Henry and Bertha Kressel University Professor of Economics and chair of the department of economics at Yeshiva University, participated in the first of the 2021 Executive Briefings sponsored by the Global Interdependence Center (GIC), whose missions is to “engage renowned experts in their fields to identify emerging economic, financial, and social issues vital to the interdependent global community and share our findings with policymakers and the press worldwide.” GIC’s goal is to promote “global partnerships among government officials, financial ministers, businesses leaders and academic researchers.”

Dr. Kahn, along with Kevin Kliesen, a business economist and bank officer in the Research Division at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, gave a “2021 Macroeconomic Outlook.” They concluded that COVID vaccines, if distributed quickly and well, will help the economy grow in the last six to nine months of 2021, though there may be some constraints to that growth because of large deficits (incurred to fight the pandemic), a slight rise in inflation and a possible rise in interest rates. While the aggregate growth will be positive, it is less clear if that growth will also occur among the groups on the margins of society that were most negatively impacted by the disease.

Watch a replay of the discussion.

Other faculty from the Sy Syms School of Business will also be involved in future GIC Executive Briefings.

Dr. James Kahn (upper left), Kevin Kliesen (bottom left), Donald Rissmiller, moderator (upper right)

Speaker Bios

Dr. James Kahn joined the economics department at Yeshiva University as department chair in 2009. Previously he was vice president in the research department at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Before that he was Associate Professor at the University of Rochester. He was a National Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, and has also taught at the Columbia, Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, and New York University.

Kevin L. Kliesen is a business economist and Bank Officer in the Research Division at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. He joined the Bank in 1988. He holds an M.A. in Economics from Colorado State University. In his position as a business economist, he analyzes current U.S. macroeconomic and financial market developments and trends for the Bank president and staff economists prior to each Federal Open Market Committee meeting. He also reports on and analyzes economic conditions in the seven states of the Eighth Federal Reserve District.