Spurred by the bursting of the housing bubble, the financial and market crisis that began in 2007 has wreaked havoc on the global economy. In the last five years, this crisis has seen the collapse of major financial institutions, bank and corporate bailouts, extraordinary volatility in stock markets, unprecedented numbers of foreclosures and job losses, and new austerity measures and regulations. And the uncertainty continues. This series of public lectures invites thinkers from a variety of perspectives to discuss the economic and political roots of the crisis, its historical precedents and origins, and potential remedies in moving forward. The series draws inspiration from the view that the time is ripe for fresh thinking about our political and economic future—a future dependent on innovative ideas that defy partisan and party divisions.
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February 24 - Lost Decades: The Making of America's Debt Crisis and the Long Recovery with Menzie Chin, Professor of Public Affairs and Economics at the University of Wisconsin
The U.S. economy lost the first decade of the twenty-first century to an ill-conceived boom and subsequent bust. It is now in danger of losing another decade to the stagnation of an incomplete recovery. How did this happen? Menzie Chinn explains the political and economic roots of this crisis, as well as its long-term effects, including political strategies that led to the debt and the continuing impact of the huge U.S. public debt in the ongoing slow recovery from the recession.
Menzie D. Chinn is Professor of Public Affairs and Economics at the
University of Wisconsin's Robert M. La Follette School of Public
Affairs. In 2000-2001, Professor Chinn served as Senior Staff Economist
for International Finance on the President's Council of Economic
Advisers. He is currently a Research Fellow in the International Finance
and Macroeconomics Program of the National Bureau of Economic Research,
and has been a visiting scholar at the International Monetary Fund, the
Congressional Budget Office, the Federal Reserve Board and the European
Central Bank.
With Jeffry Frieden, he is coauthor of Lost Decades: The Making of America's Debt Crisis and the Long Recovery (September 2011, W.W. Norton). He is also a contributor to Econbrowser, a weblog on macroeconomic issues.
April 4 -The Long Term Consequences of the Financial Crisis with John Allison, Retired CEO of Branch Banking and Trust & Distinguished Professor of Practice at Wake Forest
The American economy continues to suffer from the bursting of the housing bubble and subsequent collapse in the capital markets in spring of 2007. In this second talk in our series on the Economic Crisis, John Allison, retired CEO of Branch, Banking, & Trust, will discuss the causes of this crisis, including government policies and errors by financial institutions, and potential short and long-term solutions.
John Allison is Retired Chairman and CEO of BB&T Corporation, the 10th largest financial services holding company headquartered in the U. S. Mr. Allison began his service with BB&T in 1971 and managed a wide variety of responsibilities throughout the bank. He became president of BB&T in 1987 and was elected Chairman and CEO in July 1989. During Mr. Allison’s tenure as CEO from 1989 to 2008, BB&T grew from $4.5 billion to $152 billion in assets. In March 2009, he joined the faculty of Wake Forest University School of Business as Distinguished Professor of Practice.
Allison is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received his master’s degree in management from Duke University (1974). He is also a graduate of the Stonier Graduate School of Banking and has received 6 Honorary Doctorate Degrees. Allison has received the Corning Award for Distinguished Leadership, been inducted into the NC Business Hall of Fame and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Banker. He was recognized by the Harvard Business Review as one of the top 100 most successful CEO
s in the world over the last decade. He serves on the Board of Visitors at the business schools at Wake Forest, Duke, and UNC-Chapel Hill, and the Board of Directors of the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism and the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. A native of Charlotte, N.C., Allison is married to the former Elizabeth McDonald of Elkin, N.C. They have two sons and one daughter.
