Who is Dean Baker?

So who is this Dean Baker that I refer to in some of my posts? He is a highly respected economist, at least to those people who also respect Paul Krugman.

According to Wikipedia,

Baker was the first economist to point out the bubble in the US housing market back in 2002^, and indeed one of the only economists to spot it. He was also one of literally a handful of economists who correctly predicted that the collapse of this bubble would lead to recession. He has been sharply critical of the regulatory framework of the real estate and financial industries, the use of financial instruments like CDOs, and the incompetence and conflicting interests of US politicians or regulators, such as Hank Paulson. After all, these were the factors which led to the housing bubble being created, led to it being unrecognised and undealt with, and led to the catastrophic effects of its collapse being spread so widely.

Baker is well worth reading, and anyway, how can you not like someone who has written a book called “The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer“? This book is even available as a free PDF download.