====Ties to Pete Peterson and "Fix the Debt"====
The economists both have ties to Wall Street billionaire [[Pete Peterson]]. As the Center for Media and Democracy detailed in the online report, "[[The Peterson Pyramid]]," the Blackstone billionaire turned philanthropist has spent half a billion dollars to promote this chorus of calamity. Through the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, Peterson has funded practically every think tank and non-profit that works on deficit- and debt-related issues, including his latest 2012 astroturf supergroup, "Fix the Debt.”
Reinhart, described glowingly by the ''New York Times'' as "the most influential female economist in the world," was a Senior Fellow at the [http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iie.com%2Fstaff%2Fauthor_bio.cfm%3Fauthor_id%3D86&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNHSTM_yK62gJP7x2mLnk25cJsjZqg Peterson Institute for International Economics] founded, chaired, and [http://www.pgpf.org/Issues/Grants/2010/12/16/~/link.aspx?_id=11E303D17D4444B0BC413A5E7211B658&_z=z funded] by Peterson. Reinhart is listed as participating in many Peterson Institute events, such as their [http://www.pgpf.org/Issues/Fiscal-Outlook/2012/05/050812-Fiscal-Summit-Media-Advisory.aspx 2012 fiscal summit] along with Paul Ryan, Alan Simpson, and Tim Geithner, and numerous other Peterson lectures and events available on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkcqBucVgSc YouTube]. She is married to economist and author Vincent Reinhart, who does similar work for the American Enterprise Institute, [http://www.pgpf.org/Issues/Grants/2010/12/16/Grants-American-Enterprise-Institute.aspx also funded by the Peterson Foundation].
Kenneth Rogoff is listed on the [http://www.piie.com/institute/advisory.cfm Advisory Board] of the Peterson Institute. The Peterson Institute bankrolled [http://www.piie.com/publications/chapters_preview/6222/01iie6222.pdf and published] a 2011 Rogoff-Reinhart book-length collaboration, "A Decade of Debt," where the authors apparently used the same flawed data to reach many of the same conclusions and warn ominously of a "debt burden" stretching into 2017 that "will weigh heavily on the public policy agenda of numerous advanced economies and global financial markets for some time to come." (Note that not everyone associated with the Institute touts the Peterson party line.)