William A. Niskanen

William A. Niskanen -- a former defense analyst, business economist, and professor -- has been chairman of the Cato Institute since stepping down as acting chairman of President Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers in 1985. His primary long-term research focuses on defense, education, and medical care. Before serving four years at the CEA, Niskanen was a founder of the National Tax Limitation Committee, the director of economics at the Ford Motor Company, and assistant director of the Office of Management and Budget for two years. He is the author of Bureaucracy and Representative Government and Reaganomics: An Insider's Account of the Policies and the People, named one of the ten best books of 1988 by Business Week.

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