Frederic Wills '19As part of the “A Vanished Port” series, Richard Grossman, professor of economics, presented a lecture titled, “How Rich Was Rich,” at the Russell Library in Middletown, Conn. on Nov. 9. The lecture came as part of a newly opened exhibit at the Middlesex County Historical Society. “A Vanished Port: Middletown and the Caribbean, 1750-1824,” takes objects and documents from the time period to illustrate the “culture of prosperity that grew from Middletown’s trade relationships with the slave-worked sugar plantations of the English Caribbean.” Using Middletown merchant, Richard Alsop, who died in 1776 with a huge estate that included property, possessions,…
At Queen’s University, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Richard Grossman, professor of economics, was appointed to the International Advisory Board of Queen’s University Center for Economic History, where he will advise on the university’s many economic programs. Grossman also served as an external examiner on a PhD thesis titled, “Bears and Bubbles in Financial Markets: Essays on the British Bicycle Mania,” at Queen’s University. Grossman also presented his co-authored papers “Beresford’s Revenge: British equity holdings in Latin America, 1869-1929,” and “Long-Run Patters and Shifts in Wealth—Insights from Irish Share Prices since 1825,” Sept. 1-2 at the 6th Eurhistock Conference, a conference focusing on the history…
Lauren Rubenstein The Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life will host a series of three panels in February and March on the refugee crisis. All events will take place in PAC 001. The first panel, The Development of the Crisis and the Response in Europe, will be held at 7 p.m. Feb. 3. Moderated by Professor of Economics Richard Grossman, the panel is comprised of Bruce Masters, the John E. Andrus Professor of History; Robert Ford, former U.S. ambassador to Syria; and Marcie Patton, professor of politics at Fairfield University. The second panel, The Refugee Experience, will be held at 7 p.m. Feb. 17. Moderated by…
Richard Grossman, professor of economics, and Masami Imai, professor and chair of economics, professor of East Asian studies, are the authors of an article published January 2016 in Explorations in Economic History. The article is titled "Taking the lord's name in vain: The impact of connected directors on 19th century British banks." Grossman and Imai considered the appointment of prominent, well-connected individuals (former members of Parliament and lords) to the boards of directors of banks in pre-World War I Britain, and investigated whether their presence enhanced equity value for bank shareholders. Surprisingly, they found that these individuals actually had negative effects on bank equity returns. The…
Richard Grossman, professor of economics, and Masami Imai, professor and chair of economics, professor of East Asian studies, are the authors of an op-ed published in The Guardian about House Speaker John Boehner's likely next move when he retires from Congress. The op-ed is titled "Whoever hires John Boehner post-Congress will make a terrible investment." They anticipate that, like most former members of Congress and high ranking members of the executive branch, Boehner is likely to have his pick of lucrative job offers—to become an investment banker, lobbyist or corporate adviser. "But for any of these companies, John Boehner would be…
Professor of Economics Richard Grossman provided an "expert view" on the question "Will Japan's economy rebound under Abenomics and resume its growth?" in an issue of SAGE Business Researcher on "Doing Business With Japan." Japan's economy has performed poorly during the past two decades, and many wonder if it will ever "recover its former glory." Grossman took the affirmative view, arguing "there is good reason to believe that Japan will emerge from its funk and achieve growth rates similar to those of its counterparts in the developed world." He writes that the prospects for success depend on the effectiveness of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's…
Richard Grossman, professor of economics, recently presented a talk titled, "An historical perspective on regulatory competition versus cooperation: the view from economics" at the third annual Conference of the University Research Priority Program. The conference, held June 1-2 at the University of Zurich Institute of Law, was titled, "International Aspects of Financial Regulation: Competition vs. Coordination." Grossman's talk focused on cross-border cooperation between international bank regulators in the wake of the U.S. subprime and European debt crises—an effort to enhance banking stability. Examples include the Basel capital accords and European Stability Mechanism. Grossman put these into historical context by looking at…
MarketWatch columnist Howard Gold turned to Professor of Economics Richard Grossman for his take on reforming the Fed. Gold took issue with calls from presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul and others to "audit the Fed," but instead advocated for term limits for Fed chair-persons and changes in the pivotal Federal Reserve Bank of New York. On the matter of term limits for the Fed chair, Grossman spoke of former chairman Alan Greenspan, who stuck around nearly 19 years. (more…)
Professor of Economics Richard Grossman recently presented the keynote address at a conference held at the Austrian National Bank. The presentation, made on March 11, was titled, "Interest rate cycles and implications for the financial sector: a long-term view." A summary is available here. The conference was jointly sponsored by Austria's central bank (the Oesterreichische Nationalbank), SUERF (the European Money and Finance Forum), and BWG (the Austrian Society for Bank Research).
Olivia DrakeRichard Grossman, professor of economics, is featured in a radio interview with Share Radio in London Feb. 19. In the interview, Grossman talks about the consequences of the European Central Bank's new quantitative easing (QE) policy, which may stimulate an economy when a standard monetary policy has become ineffective. The ECB's action follows in the footsteps of the central banks of Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, which also have used quantitative easing in the 2000s. A concern that has been raised about the introduction of QE is that persistent low interest rates will lead to another boom-bust…
Professor of Economics Richard Grossman recently accepted two new posts. He was appointed to be a research fellow in the Economic History Program of the London-based Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). Founded in 1983, CEPR's mission is "to enhance the quality of economic policymaking within Europe and beyond, by fostering high quality, policy-relevant economic research, and disseminating it widely to decision-makers in the public and private sectors." Grossman is one of only a few American research fellows at CEPR. He was also recently appointed associate editor for socioeconomics, health policy and law of the journal Neurosurgery. See here for a bio of…
Richard Grossman, professor of economics, delivered a keynote speech at the 10th Chief Risk Officer Assembly in Munich, Germany on Nov. 19. The speech was based on his book, WRONG: Nine Economic Policy Disasters and What We Can Learn from Them (Oxford University Press), and focused the consequences of government policy for economic risk. The CRO Assembly is organized by Geneva Association, an insurance industry think-tank, and the CRO Forum, which is made up of chief risk officers from large (primarily European) multi-national insurance and re-insurance companies. The conference took place at the headquarters of Munich RE, one of the world’s largest…