Feds missed opportunity to balance housing market, Prof. Smith writes in Newsweek

Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith, Ph.D., professor of economic science at Chapman University, is one of five of the world’s leading economists tapped by Newsweek International to take stock of the economy and offer insights into what international economies can expect in the year to come.

In his article, Mired in Disequilibrium: Do for households what the Fed sought for the banks, Dr. Smith suggests that the federal stimulus program eclipsed better plans and “was a scattergun shot, not a surgical strike at the source of our distress — homeowner negative equity and the need for the relative price of homes to fall.”

All five articles may be found in the magazine’s online World news page.

Dr. Smith was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2002 for his groundbreaking work in experimental economics. He has joint appointments with the Argyros School of Business & Economics and the School of Law, and he is part of a team that created and runs the Economic Science Institute at Chapman.