Feldstein on Taxes Sways Democrats More Than Fellow Republicans

In 1961, Martin Feldstein faced a choice: Become a doctor -- or an economist. He had finished his bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard College and been accepted to Harvard Medical School. He went with economics, enticed by a Fulbright scholarship to study at Oxford University in England. Once there, he found a way to combine his two areas of interest, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its October special issue on the 50 Most Influential people in global finance. The first paper he published was an economic analysis of Britain’s National Health Service.

When he returned to the U.S. in 1967, the U.S. public health programs, Medicare and Medicaid, were just two years old. Feldstein says it was immediately clear to him that their costs would rise rapidly.