Heiner Flassbeck

Heiner Flassbeck (born 1950) is a German economist. He studied economics in Saarbrücken and received his doctorate from the Free University of Berlin in 1987. After working for the German Council of Economic Experts and the Federal Ministry of Economics, he headed the business-cycle department at the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin from 1988 to 1998. He served as State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Finance in 1998–99. From 2003 to 2012, he worked for UNCTAD in Geneva, ultimately as director responsible for globalization and development strategies. In 2005, he was appointed honorary professor at the University of Hamburg. His publications include The Market Economy of the 21st Century, Act Now, The Euro Disaster and The Limited Planet and the Unlimited Economy. He also co-authored an Atlas of the World Economy with Friederike Spiecker.