Rethinking Finance: New Perspectives on the Crisis: A Conference I Am Going to

...and thus not going to the INET Conference in Berlin.

The Russell Sage and Century Foundations sponsor:

Rethinking Finance: New Perspectives on the Crisis: A conference on the economic lessons from the financial crisis: Friday, April 13, 2012 — 10:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. at The Princeton Club The Princeton Club is located at 15 West 43rd Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues. RSVP: Events@tcf.org or by phone: (212) 452-7722. Respond by Wednesday, April 11, 2012….

Session Four: Rethinking Macroeconomics and Finance 3:30-4:30

Moderator: Alan Blinder
"This Time, It Is Different: Cutting Edge Macro Finance from the 1870s for the 2010s" J. Bradford DeLong, University of California, Berkeley
"Credit Supply Shocks and Macroeconomic Activity in a Financial Accelerator Model" Simon Gilchrist, Boston University

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Some economic events are so major and unsettling that they “change everything.” Such is the case with the financial crisis that started in the summer of 2007 and is, in several respects, still ongoing. Yet enough time has now elapsed for economists to dig deeper than the usual focus on the immediate causes and consequences of the crisis. How have these stunning events changed our thinking about the role of the financial system in the economy, about financial innovation, about the efficiency of financial markets, and about how the government should regulate finance?

To address these issues, the Russell Sage Foundation and The Century Foundation have convened some of the nation’s most renowned economists for a conference on what we have learned from the financial crisis. Four panels of experts will share their assessments of discrete aspects of the crisis, point to changes that should be made in the financial industry, in government regulation, and in the thinking of economists. The panelists will also take questions from conference participants in what we anticipate will be a lively exchange of opinions on the lessons of the financial crisis. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, an outstanding scholar of economics and finance in his own right, will offer his thoughts on lessons learned from the crisis in a lunchtime speech.

Session One: Rethinking Market Efficiency 10:00-11:00

Moderator: Robert Solow
"The Efficient-Market Hypothesis and the Financial Crisis" Burton G. Malkiel, Princeton University
"Behavioral Finance in the Financial Crisis: Market Efficiency, Minsky, and Keynes" Hersh Shefrin, Santa Clara University and Santa Clara University "Why Did So Many People Make So Many Ex Post Bad Decisions: The Causes of the Foreclosure Crisis" Paul Willen, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

Session Two: Rethinking Financial Innovation 11:15-12:15

Moderator: Alan Blinder
"Ratings, Mortgage Securitizations, and the Apparent Creation of Value" John Hull, University of Toronto and Alan White, University of Toronto
"The Role of ABS, CDS, and CDOs in the Credit Crisis and the Economy" Robert A. Jarrow, Cornell University
"Finance vs. Wal-Mart: Why Are Financial Services So Expensive?" Thomas Philippon, New York University

Lunch: 12:30 - 2:00: Keynote Speaker: Ben S. Bernanke, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Session Three: Rethinking Financial Regulation 2:15-3:15

Moderator: Andrew Lo
"Shadow Finance" Patrick Bolton, Columbia University; Tano Santos, Columbia University; and Jose Scheinkman, Princeton University
"The Political Economy of Financial Regulation after the Crisis" Robert E. Litan, The Ewing Mario Kauffman Foundation
"Pay, Politics, and the Financial Crisis" Kevin J. Murphy, University of Southern California

Session Four: Rethinking Macroeconomics and Finance 3:30-4:30

Moderator: Alan Blinder
"This Time, It Is Different: Cutting Edge Macro Finance from the 1870s for the 2010s" J. Bradford DeLong, University of California, Berkeley "Credit Supply Shocks and Macroeconomic Activity in a Financial Accelerator Model" Simon Gilchrist, Boston University