Dean Baker

College football player and sports executive[citation needed]

What is Dean Baker known for?

Dean Baker, a distinguished alumnus of Normandy High School in St. Louis, Missouri, is a notable American economist. Born on July 13, 1958, in Columbus, Ohio, Baker has made significant contributions in the fields of macroeconomics, real estate economics, and urban economics.DeanBaker.net

After his high school years, Baker pursued a diverse educational journey that started with a Bachelor's degree in history, with minors in economics and philosophy from Swarthmore College. He then went on to earn a Master's degree in economics from the University of Denver and a PhD in economics from the University of Michigan.

His illustrious career began as a lecturer at the University of Michigan, later moving on to an assistant professorship at Bucknell University. Baker then served as an economist at the Economic Policy Institute before co-founding the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) with Mark Weisbrot in 1999. The CEPR has become a well-respected, independent, non-partisan think tank that extensively explores economic research topics spanning from social security to international affairs.

Baker's credentials also include consulting roles with the World Bank and providing expert testimony to various government bodies. His influence extends to the world of journalism, having been a recurring author of an online commentary on economic reporting for prestigious publications like The New York Times and The Washington Post.

One of his most notable feats in his career was the accurate prediction of the United States housing bubble of 2007-08. He was one of the first economists to identify the impending crisis and base his outlook on solid housing price datasets provided by the U.S government, years before the bubble's peak. It was this remarkable accomplishment that earned him, along with Steve Keen and Nouriel Roubini, the prestigious Revere Award.