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.
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Mwangi S. Kimenyi and Njuguna S. Ndung'u, October 16, 2009, The Brookings Institution
Access to financial services is crucial to economic growth and poverty reduction, yet a large proportion of households in developing countries lack access to financial services. Brookings expert Mwangi Kimenyi and Njuguna S. Ndung’u, Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, discuss the Kenyan experience with mobile phone banking and how this technology can expand the financial services frontier. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Douglas J. Elliott, June 18, 2009, PBS NewsHour
Dougals Elliott and others weigh in on the Obama administration's new consumer protection proposal on PBS's The Business Desk with Paul Soloman.
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PAST EVENT
Monday, May 04, 2009
9:00 AM to 11:00 AM
Washington, DC
More low-income families now need assistance on how to find financial vehicles that will allow them to more effectively manage debt, savings and their financial lives. Brookings hosted a discussion on how recommendations from Insufficient Funds: Savings, Assets, Credit, and Banking among Low-Income Households—a new book edited by Rebecca M. Blank and Michael S. Barr—might be realized in this current economic environment. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Alan Berube and Alan Mallach, February 09, 2009, The Brookings Institution
The final House-Senate compromise on the economic recovery package offers no boost for HUD’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program, established last year to help state and local governments mitigate the impact of foreclosures. Alan Berube and Alan Mallach argue that additional funds for the program (part of the House proposal omitted in the final bill) would provide much-needed assistance to local communities. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Alan Mallach, February 03, 2009, The Brookings Institution
The wave of home mortgage foreclosures that began in 2006 continues to surge, greatly destabilizing neighborhoods, towns, and cities across the United States. However, the federal government has played a limited role to date in blunting its effects. This Blueprint policy brief argues for carefully-targeted federal policies to assist states and localities in mitigating the community-level impacts of foreclosure, and creating the conditions for ultimate housing market recovery. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
H. Peyton Young and Dean P. Foster , December 17, 2008, Institutional Investor
Based on the 2008 working paper, "The Hedge Fund Game," Peyton Young and co-author Dean P. Foster show how surprisingly easy it is for unskilled managers to create “fake” alpha, mimicking the returns of their more skilled and scrupulous peers. The only way to protect the industry, the authors argue, is through greater transparency. Read More
PAST EVENT
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
12:30 PM to 2:00 PM
Washington, DC
The sixth session of the Iran Working Group was held on December 16, 2008, at Brookings. Several analysts shared their expertise on the current state of sanctions against Iran – in particular, on the current measures targeting certain Iranian banks – and on the prospects for the incoming U.S. administration to achieve multilateral consensus on a diplomatic strategy toward Tehran, particularly from key actors such as Russia and China. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Jeffrey R. Kling, Jeffrey R. Brown, Sendhil Mullainathan, Garth R. Wiens and Marian V. Wrobel, October 31, 2008, The Brookings Institution
In this paper, Jeffrey R. Brown, Jeffrey R. Kling, Sendhil Mullainathan, Garth R. Wiens and Marian V. Wrobel test the relative effectiveness of their two framing contexts for life annuities when different reference points are introduced, testing for loss aversion in both investment and consumption frames. Read More
PAST EVENT
Thursday, June 05, 2008
9:30 AM to 12:00 PM
Washington, DC
Hurricanes, retirement, home-buying and tax-base erosion all pose financial risks. Yet markets to reduce these risks are elusive. The Hamilton Project at Brookings released papers at a discussion on how sound public policy can play a critical role in helping to foster new markets or expand existing markets in ways that could provide widely shared benefits. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Alan Mallach, May 29, 2008, The Brookings Institution
The mortgage foreclosure crisis has become an issue of growing concern over the past two years, particularly in many older industrial communities. Alan Mallack proposes a set of 10 action steps that state leaders can take to help mitigate its impact on families and neighborhoods—and prevent a similar situation from occurring in the future. Read More
PAST EVENT
Friday, May 16, 2008
10:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Washington, DC
How could America's sophisticated financial system go so wrong and cause so much damage? Martin Baily, Douglas Elmendorf and Robert Litan answered that question in a new paper released at this public forum. The authors, following opening remarks by FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair, put forward a specific agenda of policy actions to reduce the chance that history repeats itself. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Colin I. Bradford, May 02, 2008, Guardian Unlimited
Missing from the recent IMF-World Bank ministerial meetings was an understanding that policy development needs to be an interactive process, one that includes financial officials and law makers. Colin Bradford advises the world's legislators must be brought into the conversation about global development in order for these discussions to evolve into successful action. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Rebecca M. Blank, April 16, 2008, The Brookings Institution
A substantial number of low-income individuals make use of services within the alternative financial sector, particularly pay-day lenders and check cashing outlets. The high cost of these services has led many observers to seek policies that would reduce the use of informal financial services among lower income households. In this paper, Rebecca Blank reviews the reasons why individuals utilize AFS outlets and discusses the policy options that could affect these decisions. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Jeffrey R. Kling, Jeffrey R. Brown, Sendhil Mullainathan and Marian V. Wrobel, March 31, 2008, The Retirement Security Project
Jeffrey Kling, Jeffrey Brown, Sendhil Mullainathan and Marian Wrobel explore the idea that people's aversion to annuities is not a fully rational phenomenon. They suggest that a psychologically richer model of consumer behavior can explain under-annuitization. Read More