National Economists Club

The National Economists Club is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, tax-exempt educational organization. It aims to encourage and sponsor discussion and an exchange of ideas on economic trends and issues that are relevant for public policy. The NEC was founded in 1968 in Washington, DC by a group of economists including Murray Weidenbaum, John W. Kendrick, James Tobin, Penelope Thunberg, and the late Herbert Stein, who served as the Club’s first President. The Club draws members from business, finance, government, international institutions, foreign embassies, think tanks, trade associations, and legal and accounting firms. Indeed, the Club welcomes as members anyone with a professional interest in economics. The NEC currently has more than 500 members of whom approximately 100 reside outside the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area and overseas. The Club strives for variety, balance, and timeliness in its programs. Recent speakers included members of the Council of Economic Advisers, chief economists of financial firms, members of the Federal Reserve Board, officials of international institutions, university economists, and senior business executives. In February 2005, the NEC became the Washington Chapter of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE). Besides NABE, the NEC regularly engages in joint activities with the Society of Government Economists (SGE) and the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession (CSWEP).