Weidenbaum Center

Raymond E. Arvidson, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, will receive the Weidenbaum Center Award for Excellence Medal. The award will be given at a ceremony held during the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy annual dinner April 2. This award honors individuals who have made major contributions to both scholarship and public service. 

While President Donald Trump has pledged an all-out effort to do away with wasteful regulations, his proposed 2018 budget would increase federal spending on regulatory agencies by 3.4 percent, according to a new report issued today by the Weidenbaum Center at Washington University in St. Louis and the Regulatory Studies Center at George Washington University.

For a majority of the pollsters and established pundits, the outcome of the 2012 presidential election was a shock. For statistician/author/blogger Nate Silver, it was anything but. In his Assembly Series presentation on Feb. 11, he will describe one of his secrets: discerning the “signal” from the “noise.”​

Homeland security and other regulatory agencies are creating jobs and a record-breaking budget according to a new study from the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy at Washington University in St. Louis and the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center.  A Decade of Growth in the Regulators’ Budget: An Analysis of the U.S. Budget for Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011 details the rise in regulatory spending and who gets the lion’s share of this year’s $59 billion federal regulatory budget.

Steven Smith, director of the Weidenbaum Center and political science professor is calling for filibuster reform in the U.S. Senate.  And he’s taking his message to Capitol hill.Smith is participating in a conference sponsored by the Weidenbaum Center and the Brookings Institution on the “State of the Senate” May 17 in Washington D.C. On May 19, Smith will testify before the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration to argue his case for reform of the rules that are obstructing and restricting the legislative role of the Senate.

Two prominent economists made headlines last week in visits to the Olin Business School when they shared their views on the economy and its recovery from the “Great Recession.” Former Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker and St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank president and CEO James Bullard, PhD, offered different perspectives on jobs, financial reform and the global economy. One dared to suggest the need for increased taxes in the near future; one said the current crisis in Greece could slow the U.S. recovery.

The economy and recovery from the “Great Recession” will be in the spotlight this week with two prominent speakers on campus.  Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank and current St. Louis Fed president Jim Bullard will share their views at two separate events. 

The Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government and Public Policy and the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis will host a daylong conference titled “State and Local Government Finance Amid Economic Turbulence” beginning at 8 a.m. Friday, April 9, in Simon Hall’s May Auditorium. The conference is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Experts from the St. Louis Federal Reserve and around the country will be on the Washington University campus Friday, Feb. 5, to discuss the Federal Reserve’s role during the recent recession and future directions for policy. The free public conference, “Monetary Policy Amid Economic Turbulence,” begins at 2:30 p.m. in the Bryan Cave Moot Court Room, Anheuser-Busch Hall.

Photo by Joe AngelesEliot Society President Robert L. Virgil, Ph.D., presents the *Search* Award to Murray L. Weidenbaum, Ph.D., April 26.He’s one of the country’s most acclaimed economists and a distinguished WUSTL professor for more than 40 years; the Search is the Eliot Society’s highest honor.