Phillip L. Swagel

Phillip L. Swagel is a professor in international economic policy at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. He directs the Thomas Schelling Distinguished visitor series, which brings to the university eminent policymakers and leading academics who have made sustained contributions to public policy.

Swagel comes to SPP from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, where he served as a visiting professor teaching classes on the relationship between financial markets and the economy. Swagel was also the director of the McDonough School's Center for Financial Institutions, Policy and Governance. He is a non-resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Swagel was assistant secretary for economic policy at the Treasury Department from December 2006 to January 2009. In that position, he advised Secretary Paulson on all aspects of economic policy. He served as a member of the TARP investment committee, and was responsible for analysis on issues including housing, financial markets, healthcare, pensions and macroeconomic forecasts.

Swagel was previously chief of staff and a senior economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers, and was an economist at the IMF and the Federal Reserve Board. He has taught courses on domestic and international economics at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He received a bachelor's degree in economics from Princeton University in 1987 and a PhD in economics from Harvard University in 1993.