RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Bill Frenzel, January 15, 2010, The Brookings Institution
As the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission began its public hearings in earnest this month, Bill Frenzel argues that the best thing that can be said about this Commission is that it will do better than a Congressional Committee could do. The Commission has good people who will do a respectable job, but no one will care. Read More
VIDEO
Douglas J. Elliott, January 12, 2010
As Wall Street bonus season hits again, the public and policymakers continue to be outraged over sums being paid to the financial community, while the Obama administration is considering a tax on those bonuses. Douglas Elliott takes a critical look at compensation on Wall Street and says there are no easy answers.
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Douglas J. Elliott, January 11, 2010, The Brookings Institution
With Wall Street bonuses causing both angry and shocked reactions from policymakers and the general public, Douglas Elliott takes a critical look at the bonus system. He examines the overall structure and how it affects risk-taking, whether firms with supposedly better compensation structures performed better, and government actions in this area. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Eswar Prasad, December 22, 2009, Finance and Development, Volume 46, Number 4
Asian economies are seeing strong, stable growth and leading the world out of the recession. In the December 2009 issue of the IMF's Finance & Development, Eswar Prasad discusses how Asian emerging markets can improve their economic welfare by rebalancing growth toward domestic demand. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Kemal Derviş, December 21, 2009, FT.com
There is widespread consensus that global account imbalances contributed to the financial crisis of 2008-09, and there is even greater agreement on the need to rebalance world demand to support and sustain recovery. Kemal Derviş discusses the roles the United States and China play in the global economy and how developing economies can help cure the global economic imbalance. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Karen Dynan, December 18, 2009, The Brookings Institution
Most economists and policymakers failed to see the recession coming; would better financial and economic data have made a difference? Karen Dynan discusses the types of data that would be useful to help prevent or predict future crises. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Daniel Kaufmann, December 15, 2009, The Brookings Institution
With regard to U.S. financial institutions, there is the impression that insufficient attention is being paid to the challenges posed by the influence of vested interests, money in politics, legal corruption and capture. Daniel Kaufmann discusses the possible power shift from Washington to Wall Street and urges more action in the effort to reduce the influence of very large institutions over the financial system. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
William A. Galston, November 30, 2009, The New Republic
According to William Galston, Israel’s response to the economic downturn—raising taxes, avoiding traditional stimulus measures and avoiding government bailouts for banks and bondholders—offers a number of lessons for the United States. By rejecting supply-side, Keynesian and “too big to fail” economics that dominated the America’s reaction to the crisis, Israel rebounded in a way that Barclays analysts call “the strongest recovery story” in Europe and the Middle East. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Douglas J. Elliott and Martin Neil Baily, November 23, 2009, The Brookings Institution
What really caused the great economic crisis of the past year? Should the Fed’s powers be stripped away, per legislation sponsored by Rep. Ron Paul that recently passed the House Financial Services Committee? In an effort to help inform the debate, Brookings Fellow Douglas Elliott and Senior Fellow Martin Baily ponder the importance of public perceptions of the causes of the crisis - and how they will affect chances of financial regulatory reform. Read More
PAST EVENT
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
9:30 AM to 4:00 PM
Washington, DC
On November 17, a day-long conference co-sponsored by Brookings and the Heritage Foundation will explore the measurement challenges associated with the recession, particularly in the financial and housing sectors; how innovation can become a standard component of our national accounting system, and how incorporating innovation metrics will aid the development of a unified picture of the sources of growth and economic disruption. Read More
VIDEO
Douglas J. Elliott, November 12, 2009
Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn) has introduced legislation to reform the financial sector in the wake of the recent economic crisis. Senator Dodd’s proposal calls for consolidating the four federal financial regulatory agencies into a single regulator. Fellow Douglas Elliott says regulation consolidation is definitely in order.
VIDEO
Alice M. Rivlin, October 28, 2009
This month marks 80 years since the Wall Street crash of 1929 that was one cause of the Great Depression. Alice Rivlin says the 1929 crash led to the creation of the financial and social safety net measures that have helped prevent today's economic crisis from being a full-blown depression.
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Martin Neil Baily, October 19, 2009, National Journal
In light of the debate over whether the Obama administration's plan for financial regulation goes far enough to curb institutions that become "too big to fail," Martin Baily addresses the question of whether any regulation of "systemic risk" will inevitably lead to the designation of some banks as "too big to fail." Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Kemal Derviş, October 08, 2009, The Brookings Institution
The fall global economic agenda is well underway with the completion of the G-20 Pittsburgh Summit and the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings in Istanbul. Kemal Derviş discusses the key themes coming out of these “historic” meetings, highlighting the essential roles of both the informal and formal channels of global economic governance and the way forward after the crisis. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Kemal Derviş, October 04, 2009, IMF-World Bank 2009 Annual Meetings
During a lecture at the IMF-World Bank 2009 Annual Meetings, Kemal Derviş discussed global growth prospects following the economic crisis and the role that supply side factors and macroeconomic management can play. Read More