Economic Crisis

Philip S. Salisbury is a retired policy analyst for the State of Illinois. During the past 30 years his research has focused on the problems of economic growth and decline. These questions have attracted some noteworthy scholars of modern economics, including John Maynard Keynes, Milton Friedman, Bernard Bernanke, among others. In the 1940’s and after A.F. Burns and W.C. Mitchell refined techniques for measuring business cycles. This scholarship established the foundations for the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Dating Committee’s work. Business cycles fostered much research and influenced U.S. policy making. Using extensive analyses and integration of multiple data repositories, Salisbury has extended this field of inquiry into important demographic issues that have not been carefully examined. His data analyses have produced algorithms that explain some past dynamics of economic growth and decline, with special emphasis on population dynamics. Salisbury’s research also provides empirical foundations to assess where the U.S. economy is headed and what policy options might be most effective in this era of declining population growth and increasing pollution. Anyone interested in questions of economic growth and decline will gain new insights about the U.S. economy—its past and future. -- Phillip M. Gregg, Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois Springfield