Simon Johnson

Involvement

Prof. Johnson is the Ronald A. Kurtz (1954) Professor of Entrepreneurship at MIT Sloan School of Management. He is also a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, D.C., a co-founder of BaselineScenario.com (a much cited website on the global economy), and a member of the Congressional Budget Office’s Panel of Economic Advisers. Prof. Johnson is a weekly contributor to NYT.com’s Economix, has a monthly column with Project Syndicate that runs in publications around the world, and has published high impact opinion pieces recently in The Atlantic, The New Republic, BusinessWeek, Bloomberg, and The Financial Times, among other places. In January 2010, he joined The Huffington Post as contributing business editor.

Professor Johnson is the co-author, with James Kwak, of 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and The Next Financial Meltdown, a bestselling assessment of the dangers now posed by the US financial sector (published by Pantheon in March 2010).

From March 2007 through the end of August 2008, Prof. Johnson was the International Monetary Fund’s Economic Counsellor (chief economist) and Director of its Research Department. He is a co-director of the NBER Africa Project, and works with non-profits and think tanks around the world.

By this expert

Is Too Big to Fail Over?

Article | Sep 22, 2023

We have made progress but not enough to forestall crises

Finance and the Death of Trust

Article | Oct 27, 2013

The destruction of trust is not an accident.

Simon Johnson: The Problem of Too Big to Fail Is Even Bigger Than Before 2008

Article | Sep 17, 2013

Simon Johnson, Professor at MIT and former chief economist of the IMF, calls for much higher capital requirements for big banks.

Confidence Game: Simon Johnson on the Conflicted NY Fed

News Jun 14, 2012

Have you ever heard the old adage about the danger of allowing foxes to guard the henhouse? Apparently the New York Fed hasn’t.

Featuring this expert

Our Thousand-Year Struggle over Technology and Prosperity

Video | May 17, 2023

In honor of the just-announced Nobel Prize in Economics for Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson, we re-post an Economics and Beyond podcast episode from last year, featuring Johnson, discussing Johnson and Acemoglu’s latest book, Power and Progress.

Financial Crises

Shadow Banks, Short-term Debt, and Structural Issues

Event Conference | Dec 5, 2016

The Volcker Alliance and the Institute for New Economic Thinking convened a group of influential thinkers for a half-day forum to discuss regulatory and structural changes needed to ensure the stability and resilience of financial markets. 

Too Big to Fail and the State of Finance Today

Video | Sep 21, 2013

What do we need to do to get the financial sector back on track?

The Challenge of Large, Complex Financial Institutions

Video | Apr 8, 2011

Simon Johnson at the Institute’s 2011 Annual Conference.