Professors Hess and Lynch
Guest on CNBC Programs

CMC professors Gregory Hess and Fred Lynch appeared on two separate CNBC live broadcasts on Nov. 15. Hess was a guest on Fast Money, as a critic of the Federal Reserve's QE2 Program, while Lynch, on The Kudlow Report, talked about the fate of Baby Boomers amid a debilitating economy.
In the segment, "Broad-List Finance Stars Blast Bernanke," Hess was asked his opinion on potential alternatives to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's plan to boost the economy by buying $600 billion in Treasury bonds. Hess was among the signatories to a letter published in the Nov. 15 Wall Street Journal, against the bond sales.
Hess, CMC's vice president for academic affairs, dean of the faculty, and the James G. Boswell Professor of Economics, told Fast Money that the letter served to "embolden dissenters within the Federal Reserve systems, so that they can provide more strenuous arguments to help curtail this Federal Reserve program. "Ultimately," he said, "the United States cannot continue to paper over the problems that hold us back." Watch video.
Fred Lynch, associate professor of government and author of the forthcoming book, One Nation Under AARP (University of California Press, July 2011), meanwhile was asked by Larry Kudlow if the feeble economy means the American Dream is out of reach for Baby Boomers. Lynch, who has studied AARP's political power, was quoted in a Nov. 14 USA Today story: Senior Boom Begins Amid Economic Bust.
Lynch told Kudlow host Larry Kudlow that the Dream is still alive for Boomers. "We're an individualistic, optimistic generation," he said. About one-third of Boomers are "well prepared for retirement," Lynch said, while the middle third needs to work "a little longer and save a little more." The bottom third, he says, is "going to be much more heavily dependent on Social Security and Medicare." Watch video.