Michael Barr

Nonresident Senior Fellow, Economic Studies
Portrait: Michael Barr

Michael Barr is a professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School. As the assistant secretary of the treasury, Barr was a key architect of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Barr is an expert on domestic and international financial regulation, housing finance policy, and the U.S. economy.

Recent Activity

Refine by: Financial Institutions | Financial Markets and Services | Financial Market Regulation | U.S. Economic Performance

Expert Information

Contact

Email Michael Barr

202.797.6105 — Brookings Office of Communications

Resources

Expertise

  • Financial reform, financial institutions, financial services, financial markets, banking, housing finance, international financial regulation, U.S. economy, low- and moderate-income household economic security.

Experience

Current Positions

  • Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School

Past Positions

  • U.S. Department of Treasury's Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions
  • Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin’s Special Assistant
  • Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury
  • Special Advisor to President William J. Clinton
  • special advisor and counselor on the policy planning staff at the State Department
  • law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter
  • Nonresident Senior Fellow, Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings

Education

  • J.D. from Yale Law School
  • M. Phil in International Relations from Magdalen College, Oxford University, as a Rhodes Scholar
  • B.A., summa cum laude, with Honors in History, from Yale University

In the News

"Often low- and moderate-income families need a way to cash their check, they need a way to pay their bills, they need a way to save for the future, and they’ve cobbled together an interesting mix of bank and non-bank services to do that that are often more expensive and more costly than they need to be."

Source: The Economist

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