Gramlich, Edward M. 1939–2007

(Edward Gramlich, Edward Martin Gramlich, Ned Gramlich)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born June 18, 1939, in Rochester, NY; died of myeloid leukemia, September 5, 2007, in Washington, DC. Economist, policy analyst, banking executive, educator, and author. During his years as a governor of the Federal Reserve Bank from 1997 to 2005, Gramlich tried to warn people about the dangers of subprime mortgages, predatory lenders, and an impending credit crisis. By the time the crisis became too obvious and far-reaching to ignore, Gramlich was too ill to help, but he left behind a book that explains what went wrong and how some of the serious problems might be solved:Subprime Mortgages: America's Latest Boom and Bust(2007). Gramlich, known to his colleagues as Ned, spent his career analyzing and teaching economic policy. He worked in government as a director of policy research for the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity, as a director of the Congres-sional Budget Office, and as a member of the budget office's prestigious Panel of Economic Advisors from 1988 to 1992. At the Federal Reserve, he chaired Neighborhood Works, an organization dedicated to helping low-income families find homes, and the Airline Transportation Stabilization Board, established to help airlines drastically affected by the 2001 destruction of the World Trade Center and its aftermath. As an educator Gramlich taught economics at the University of Michigan from 1976 to 1997 and directed the university's Institute of Public Policy Studies. He was actively affiliated with various economic "think tanks" over the years, including the Brookings Institution and, at the end of his life, the Urban Institute. Gramlich's profession extended even into his private life. In 1992 Gramlich, a baseball fan from childhood, directed an economic study commission for major league baseball. In 2007, he reportedly performed a type of cost-benefit analysis of experimental treatment options for the disease that threatened his life. The results of the analysis determined his decision to let nature take its course. Gramlich was the author or editor of several books, including Tax Reform: There Must Be a Better Way(1981),Federal Budget Deficits: America's Great Consumption Binge(1986),Is It Time to Reform Social Security?(1998), and The Government We Deserve: Responsive Democracy and Changing Expectations(1998).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, September 6, 2007, p. B8.

New York Times, September 6, 2007, p. C15.