Amity Shlaes

Amity Shlaes (born 1960) is an American columnist from New York, who writes about politics and economics. She is an advocate for free markets.

Education and career

Miss [http://www.amityshlaes.com/bio.php] Shlaes writes a syndicated column for Bloomberg News. She is a senior fellow in economic history at the Council on Foreign Relations. Her many appearances on television and radio include commentary on public radio for "Marketplace". On Marketplace, she recently called for nationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

In 2005, Amity Shlaes wrote a Financial Times column warning about Fannie and Freddie, and considering nationalization and privatization [http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/shlaes011105.asp] . She said:"It is time to end Fannie's creepy relationship with government. Few projects could do more to sustain the American dream."

Her Wall Street Journal piece on New Deal job creation noted that such jobs may not always increase productivity: [http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110011064]

Shlaes graduated from Jonathan Edwards College, Yale University "magna cum laude" [http://www.ashbrook.org/events/lecture/2008/shlaes.html with a bachelor’s degree in English] in 1982. [Online Yale Alumni directory] She wrote a column for the "Financial Times" for five years, for which she won the International Policy Network's Bastiat Prize for Journalism in 2002. [http://www.policynetwork.net/main/press_release.php?pr_id=34] Before that, she worked at the Wall Street Journal, where she was a member of the editorial board. She has also written for "The New Yorker", "The American Spectator", "Commentary Magazine", "Foreign Affairs", "National Review", and "The New Republic", among others. Her obituary of Milton Friedman appeared [http://www.nysun.com/article/43705] in "The New York Sun".

On September 2, 2005, Ms. Shlaes wrote a column for the "Financial Times" arguing that the George W. Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina showed that it had been well-prepared for the disaster. [ [http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/48d469f2-1b4e-11da-a117-00000e2511c8.html FT.com / Home UK / UK - Bush was prepared for the hurricane ] ] . Ten days later, in another "Financial Times" column, Ms. Shlaes noted that there had in fact been delays in responding to Katrina, but argued that the Bush Administration should not be held responsible for them, as they were simply an unfortunate result of federalism. [ [http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/df2749a0-2329-11da-86cc-00000e2511c8.html FT.com / Home UK / UK - Blame delays in New Orleans on federalism ] ]

She was recently awarded the 2007 Deadline Club award for Opinion writing [http://deadlineclub.org/awards/2007-awards] . She was also recently awarded the Newswomen's Club of New York's Front Page Award for her Bloomberg columns [http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/10-22-2007/0004686440&EDATE=] .

In July 2008, Ms. Shlaes wrote a column defending Senator Phil Gramm's comment that Americans were “whiners,” arguing that Senator Gramm was correct in stating that the United States had not entered a recession. [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/11/AR2008071102543.html?nav=hcmoduletmv Amity Shlaes - Phil Gramm Is Right - washingtonpost.com ] ]

Books

Her first book was "Germany: The Empire Within" (ISBN 0-224-02700-X), about Germany at the time of reunification. She followed it with "The Greedy Hand: How Taxes Drive Americans Crazy and What to Do About It" (ISBN 0-375-50132-0). Her most recent national best-seller is "The Forgotten Man: A New History of The Great Depression" (ISBN 0-0609-3642-8).

Personal

In 1988, Shlaes married fellow journalist Seth Lipsky, [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE3DB1338F930A25755C0A96E948260 Amity Shlaes Married to Seth Lipsky - New York Times ] ] and they have children.

External links

References