Clark Center Forum

The Fed’s September 21 FOMC statement makes great tea-leaf reading.  The Fed is worried about deflation. Reading between the lines, the Fed might be powerless to stop it.  We’re not there yet, but it could happen.  Eventually inflation – stagflation – may well be the problem, and the Fed might be just as powerless. Traditional […] 

Might there be a role for government policies—other than monetary policy—to systematically affect the unemployment rate?  Robert Shimer, our colleague in the University of Chicago’s economics department, says that the research of this year’s Nobel Laureates in economics filled an important gap by shedding light on this crucial, and now especially timely, question. We asked […] 

September 16, 2010 Paul Krugman and Robin Wells caricature my recent book Fault Lines article in the New York Review of Books. The article, and their criticism, however, do have a lot to say about Krugman’s policy views (for simplicity, I will say “Krugman” and “he” instead of “Krugman and Wells” and “they”) which I […] 

Proponents of fiscal stimulus argue that targeted subsidies can spur consumers to shift purchases from well into the future to today, and thereby help jumpstart the economy. Opponents contend that while subsidies may induce purchases today, the effect is almost completely reversed when consumers subsequently purchase fewer goods tomorrow. We inform this debate by examining […] 

FT.com; June 2, 2010 Bankers must be heaving a sigh of relief as the shenanigans of the offshore drilling industry have pushed them to the edge of the radar screen of those targeting corporate greed. But it is unlikely their respite will be for long. Inquiries under way are bound to unearth more instances of ethically, and […] 

Squawk Box; May 28th, 2010 Univeristy of Chicago finance professor Eugene Fama, widely known as the “father of modern finance,” discusses whether the government is the biggest risk to economic recovery Watch interview> 

Christian Leuz and other members of the Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee The recent G20 meetings demonstrated the substantial divide between policymakers over the right approach toward the “too-big-to-fail” problem for large, global financial institutions. Some policymakers accept that some financial firms will inevitably be too-big-to-fail and wish to focus policy efforts on facilitating orderly bailouts […] 

VoxEU US Congressional committees are now grilling bankers on the complex instruments that provided subprime mortgages with a veil of security. This column presents new evidence that subprime mortgages had more serious consequences – they were a key factor in the US housing-price boom. When house prices faltered, subprime mortgage holders defaulted en masse, eventually […] 

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are set to become the global accounting language. Empirical evidence suggests, however, that IFRS adoption alone will not lead to global convergence of reporting practices, and will not make comparing companies’ financial statements as easy as many have hoped. True convergence in reporting practices would require a much broader convergence […] 

Businessweek; April 1, 2010 The Dodd financial reform bill, which awaits the Senate after its two-week break, is loaded with good intentions. But does it do enough to keep banks from going out on a limb for profits? Read article>