http://www.bu.edu/professorvoices/

Graham Wilson, chair of the political science department and an expert on American politics. He is also the author of Only in America? American Politics in Comparative Politics. He can be reached at 617-523-2540; gkwilson@bu.edu.

Laurence Kotlikoff, professor of economics and an expert on macroeconomics and fiscal and monetary policy. He is the author of Jimmy Stewart is Dead: Ending the World’s Ongoing Financial Plague With Limited Purpose Banking. He is also a regular contributor to Bloomberg and served as senior economist on President Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisors. He can be reached at 617-353-4002; kotlikoff@bu.edu.

Tom Whalen, associate professor of social science and an expert on American politics and the American presidency. He can be reached at 978-888-3131; tjw64@comcast.net.

Tom Fiedler, Dean of the College of Communication and an expert on American politics and political reporting. He is the former executive editor of the Miami Herald and a regular contributor to PoliticoArena. He can be reached at 617-353-3488; tfiedler@bu.edu; Twitter: @BUCOMDEAN

Cornelius Hurley, director of the Center for Finance, Law & Policy and a former counsel to the Fed Board of Governors. He can be reached at 617-353-5427; ckhurley@bu.edu; Twitter: @ckhurley

“You add it up, our bond rating shouldn’t be AA+, it should be CCC at this point. I’m not kidding…It’s a scary mix of ingredients…If the market drops any more, this could lead to a double dip. At some point, all hell can break loose on our bond market. If people realize how broke the country is, they may start dumping bonds. This could be a catalyst and interest rates would shoot up. Bank assets would drop and banks would start to fail. People might panic and take money out of their money-market accounts.” (Boston Herald, Markets brace for worst after credit downgrade)

–Laurence Kotlikoff, Professor of Economics

“We’ve consistently done too little too late, looked too-short term, said the future would take care of itself, we’ll deal with that tomorrow. Well, guess what? You can’t keep putting off these problems.” (NPR “All Things Considered”, A national debt of $14 trillion? Try $211 trillion)

–Laurence Kotlikoff, Professor of Economics

“Everybody has decided that everybody is panicking. So everybody is screaming and getting up and running our of the theater.” (Boston Globe, An avalanche of worry)

– Laurence Kotlikoff, Professor of Economics

“What is surprising about the downgrade is not that it happened but that the administration was apparently taken by surprise when it did. After all, S&P had warned the markets in April that US debt was on watch for a possible downgrade. And that was long before Congress and the administration made a spectacle of themselves over the debt-ceiling issue.” (Boston Globe, OPINION: A ham-handed response from the White House)

– Cornelius Hurley, Professor of Law

“Does anyone seriously think that, if by some miracle the economy began to grow again, the Fed would not raise rates to stem inflation?

“The FOMC gave the credulous equity markets what they wanted to hear, but at what cost? The credibility of the Fed? So asked the three dissenting Federal Reserve Bank presidents.

“Perhaps it would have been better and more transparent for the Fed to have described the ‘policy tools’ it has in its closet.”

Contact Hurley at 617-353-5427 or ckhurley@bu.edu; Twitter: @ckhurley

“You add it all up, our bond rating shouldn’t be AA+, it should be CCC at this point. I’m not kidding…It’s a scary mix of ingredients…If the market drops any more, this could lead to a double-dip. At some point, all hell can break loose on our bond market. If people realize how broke the country is, they may start dumping bonds. This could be a catalyst and interest rates would shoot up. Bank assets would drop and banks would start to fail. People might panic and take money out of their money-market accounts.”

Interviewed on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” Kotlikoff added, “We’ve consistently done too little too late, looked too short-term, said the future would take care of itself, we’ll deal with that tomorrow. Well, guess what? You can’t keep putting off these problems.’

Kotlikoff is an expert in macroeconomics and fiscal monetary policy. He is the author of “Jimmy Stewart is Dead: Ending the World’s Ongoing Financial Plague With Limited Purpose Banking.” He is also a regular contributor to Bloomberg. He can be reached at 617-353-4002 or kotlikoff@bu.edu

William Grimes

“The big parts of the disruption have to do with supply chain issues and electrical power generation, in terms of the country as a whole.”

Watch full interview here.

Contact William Grimes, 617-353-9420, wgrimes@bu.edu

Michael Salinger, School of Management Professor/Everett W. Lord Distinguished Faculty Scholar, Markets, Public Policy and Law; Expert in industrial economics; Former Director of the Bureau of Economics at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission; Recently quoted in the Boston Herald – “Rising food and gas prices a real downer”

Contact 617-353-4408, salinger@bu.edu

Adil Najam, Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Longer-Range Future; Expert in Middle East politics, developing countries

Contact 617-358-4002, anajam@bu.edu, Twitter: @adilnajam

Mosaic of 65 images obtained by NASA's Landsat Earth-orbiting satellite. The northern half of the proposed Development Corridor runs through what may have been an ancient delta of the Nile.

A visionary plan for a “Desert Development Corridor” in Egypt, researched and created by Boston University geologist Dr. Farouk El-Baz, has been adopted by the country’s new government as its flagship program.  According to El-Baz, the plan – which includes the construction, along 1,200 kilometers, of a new eight-lane superhighway, a railway, a water pipeline, and a power line – would open new land for urban development, commerce, agriculture, tourism and related jobs, and installs new transportation routes to an undeveloped area of desert running parallel to the Nile River Valley and Delta.

The Egyptian-born El-Baz, director of BU’s Center for Remote Sensing, has for decades been researching Egypt’s deserts using satellite imagery and space-age techniques. He had originally proposed the plan to Egypt’s former government in 1985. Following the recent revolution, El-Baz traveled to Egypt to meet with government leaders and the general public to explain the plan that would reinvigorate the country and expand the living space near the banks of the Nile River.

“This project includes opening up a vast strip of Egypt just west of the narrow living area along the Nile that can be utilized in establishing housing communities, expanding agriculture, initiating industrial compounds, and enhancing the potential of tourism,” said El-Baz. “Most importantly, the activity opens up the possibility of a bright future for the young generation. One that is full of new opportunities where they may innovate and excel.”

El-Baz’s idea has two components: first, an axis composed of a north-south running eight-lane highway, a high-speed train, an electricity line, and a water pipeline for human consumption along the 1,200 kilometer strip of desert; and second, 12 east-west axes that connect large population centers to the north-south corridor.

El-Baz has suggested to the government that the project be run by an internationally recognized Board of Trustees and initial funding should be sought from bonds to be offered to the Egyptian people – the “owners” of the project, according to El-Baz.

Details of the project have been laid out in El-Baz’s book (Development Corridor: Securing a Better Future for Egypt), published in Cairo in 2007. The book served as the basis for technical evaluation and feasibility studies, the latter indicating that the infrastructure of the project would cost approximately $24 billion.

Contact El-Baz: 617-353-5081 or farouk@bu.edu.

“The economists should be listened to: US trade treaties should not be tools for US financial policies that are not only outdated, but actually helped cause the financial crisis in the first place. Allowing flexibility for the use of capital controls to prevent and mitigate crises now has broad support. Our trading partners have been requesting such flexibility for years, granting it would represent one small step toward a more stable financial system.”

Contact Kevin Gallagher, 617-353-9348, kpg@bu.edu