John Makin, economist, 1943-2015

John Makin, who has died of cancer aged 71, was a versatile and prolific US economist who warned of the deflationary forces buffeting the world economy.

An old-fashioned conservative, who rose above the ideologically driven partisanship of Washington DC, Makin had a deep understanding of the interactions of markets and economies and authored books on topics ranging from tax reform to exchange rate targets.

As a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute he earned a close following for his monthly Economic Outlook. His last posting for the conservative think-tank, published in February, was entitled "Pity the Fed" and argued that the central bank would fail to meet its goal of raising interest rates this year as it "faces reality" about tepid US growth.

"He was very pragmatic in his views - his outlook pieces were always very analytical and insightful," says Edwin Truman, a former Fed and Treasury official who is a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute in Washington. "He tended not to rely on a philosophical position but rather on data and analysis."

Makin understood well the risks of financial instability and, more recently, of deflation, which he warned of in a 2010 article for the Financial Times. He broadly supported the efforts of central banks to sustain demand in recent years and seemed to have no time for - or interest in - the kind of highly ideological economic thinking that has recently taken over so much of the Republican party.

John Holmes Makin was born in Brattleboro, Vermont on May 29, 1943. His mother was from an old New England family that traced its roots back to the Mayflower, while his father's career included a spell managing the Publick House, a historic inn at Sturbridge, Massachusetts.

Makin grew up in Charlton, Massachusetts and attended Trinity College in Hartford, before earning his MA and PhD at the University of Chicago, where he studied under luminaries including Milton Friedman, Arnold Zellner and Robert Mundell, who was a key influence.

In the 1960s and 1970s, he served on the faculties of the universities of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Virginia and British Columbia, before becoming a professor at the University of Washington, where he met his future wife Gwendolyn van Paasschen, who was studying at the Seattle institution. They married in September 1984. She survives him along with a daughter and his sister.

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The third phase of Makin's career began in the 1990s, when he worked as chief economist for Caxton Associates, a hedge fund. He maintained his connection to AEI and, after leaving Caxton, he returned there while acting as a consultant to Cornwall Associates in New York.

With his dry wit and incisive observations he became a central presence at AEI lunches - collegial and occasionally combative occasions where everything was questioned, says Kevin Hassett, the AEI's director of economic studies.

Makin remained a regular presence at the AEI lunch table until recent months. Summers were spent boating at the family's Maine summer house. He also had a life-long love of fast cars, driving his Porsches on racetracks including Lime Rock, Connecticut. More recently he had a sports car custom-built, ­naming it Moose.

Sam Fleming

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