in economics from Princeton University in 1993 after completing a senior thesis, titled "Modelling the Informal Economy: The Case of Mexico City", under the supervision of Christina Paxson.
[4] The Project's fax memos to Republican leaders were widely credited with orchestrating the political defeat of the Clinton health care plan in 1993.
[citation needed] In March 2016, he was among 122 "GOP National Security Leaders" who signed an open letter declaring their opposition to the candidacy of Donald Trump.
In an article in the June 2009 issue of Far Eastern Economic Review, he introduced the idea that Chinese savers have been stockpiling multiple residential units, and willingly leaving them vacant, as a "store of value," like gold.
[16] Chovanec contends that while the systemic risk may look substantially different from the conditions that spawned the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis, Chinese banks nevertheless have significant exposure to the property market, due to the widespread practice of lending to businesses on the basis of inflated land values as collateral.
[17] In late 2011, in Foreign Affairs magazine, Chovanec called attention to the downturn in China property prices and transaction volumes, suggesting that the "bubble" may have popped.
[18] He has since argued that lifting the central government's restrictions on multiple home purchases, along with a renewed push to construct subsidized public housing, would not—as is commonly hoped—be sufficient to turn the market around in the face of what Chovanec sees as a more fundamental correction.
[21] He also contends that the lending boom, by expanding China's money supply more than 50% over the past two years, has created massive inflationary pressure in the Chinese economy, despite low reported increases in CPI.
He argues that, unless China's economy is quickly weaned from its dependence on "easy credit and cheap money," rising inflation will force Chinese authorities to cut off liquidity, causing a hard landing.
"[23] In October 2010, Chovanec wrote that China's leaders need to stage an encore of Deng Xiaoping's 1992 Southern Tour, in order to recommit the country to the path of market reform, after a similar period of retrenchment.
His second trip, in July 2010, took him to the Rajin-Sonbong Economic Special Zone, in the country's extreme northeast, and across the Khasan railroad border crossing with Russia.