Robert J. Shiller is the Arthur M. Okun Professor of Economics, Department of Economics and Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University, and Professor of Finance and Fellow at the International Center for Finance, Yale School of Management. He received his B.A. from the University of Michigan in 1967 and his Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1972. He has written on financial markets, financial innovation, behavioral economics, macroeconomics, real estate, statistical methods, and on public attitudes, opinions, and moral judgments regarding markets.
Professor Shiller was one of the very few economists to predict the housing bubble. He is pessimistic about the next few years. He points out that we have never faced this situation before and that it will take some failure on the part of the Federal Reserve as they try things which may fail. He does not think it will get as bad as the Great Depression but he does draw many parallels to that time.
Professor Shiller’s newest book is The Subprime Solution: How Today’s Global Financial Crisis Happened, and What to Do about It. Take a look at the comments section for a lively discussion of his books.