Lauren RubensteinProfessor of Economics Richard Grossman had an op-ed in The Hartford Courant on Jan. 5 about negotiations over the "fiscal cliff" in Washington. He writes that though reasonable people may disagree over what top marginal tax rate is ideal for the economy, the stubborn resistance of Congressional Republicans to any tax increases is the product of ideology, not reason. Looking back over history, he writes, the "abdication of sound economic reasoning in favor of ideology" has resulted in numerous policy mistakes with long-lasting economic impacts. As an historical example, Grossman cites Britain's decision to return to the gold standard following…
On Sept. 14 and 15, Professor of Economics Richard Grossman attended a conference in Munich jointly sponsored by the Bundesbank (the German central bank) and a Munich-based research institute called CESifo. Grossman chaired a session and acted as a discussant at the conference, whose focus was, "The Banking Sector and the State." According to the conference website: "The current financial and sovereign debt crisis has shown once again that the banking sector and the state are intertwined in many ways: On the one hand, the state lends support to distressed banks and accepts risks from the private sector; in this…
Professor of Economics Richard Grossman published an op-ed in The Hartford Courant on August 7 about the global "Libor" banking scandal. Taking a lesson from the old mob-run "numbers racket," Grossman proposes an elegant solution to fixing deficits in the Libor, and renewing public confidence in the banking system. The Libor (London Interbank Offered Rate) is currently calculated by asking a group of banks to self-report the cost for them to borrow money from other banks. The highest and lowest 25 percent of submitted estimates are thrown out, and the average of the remaining submissions is the Libor. Banks are supposed to…
In this issue of The Wesleyan Connection, we ask "5 Questions" of Professor of Economics Richard Grossman. In July, Grossman spoke to the Canadian news magazine Maclean's about the Libor scandal rocking the global financial industry. Grossman's 2010 book, Unsettled Account: The Evolution of Banking in the Industrialized World since 1800, reviews banking crises over the past 200 years in North America, Europe and other regions, and considers how they speak to today's financial crises around the world. He blogs at Unsettledaccount.com. Q: Professor Grossman, what is the Libor, and what is this scandal all about? A: “Libor” is the London InterBank…
In the wake of the LIBOR banking scandal, Richard Grossman, professor of economics, commented in the Canadian news magazine Maclean’s on July 13 about banking regulation throughout history. “It’s guaranteed to be a losing battle,” he said. “The incentives in banking are so strong and the money is so big. As soon as you close off one area, someone is going to think of a new way to do things.” Grossman stressed that governments and the public have a short memory when it comes to financial crises, so that regulations that seem prudent in one era become the next generation’s “political red tape.”…
Richard Grossman, professor of economics, was a discussant at the Research Group on Political Institutions and Economic Policy at Harvard University on Dec. 3. Grossman commented on a paper, “Trade shocks, mass movements and decolonization: Evidence from India’s independence struggle,” written by Assistant Professor of Political Economy Saumitra Jha of the Stanford Graduate School of Business. David Stasavage, professor of politics at New York University, served as co-discussant on the paper along with Professor Grossman.
Olivia DrakeRichard Grossman, professor of economics, served as program chair of the annual meetings of the Economic History Association Sept. 9-11 in Boston, Mass. Grossman was responsible for coordinating the work of the four member selection panel in choosing 45 papers. He also organized these into 15 sessions, selected and recruited discussants, session chairs, plenary speakers and graduate student poster presenters. More information of the annual meeting is online here.
Richard Grossman, professor of economics, presented a paper titled "Contingent Capital and Bank Risk-Taking: Evidence from British Equity Markets before World War I” at the Yale Economic History Workshop on Feb. 21. Masami Imai, chair and associate professor of East Asian studies, associate professor of economics and director of the Freeman Center for East Asian Studies, co-authored the paper. The workshop was sponsored by Yale University's Department of Economics.
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Richard Grossman, professor of economics, is the co-author of “International Aspects of the Great Depression and the Crisis of 2007: Similarities, Differences, and Lessons,” published in the Oxford Review of Economic Policy 26(3), November 2010, pp. 318-338.
David PesciSo much has been written about the recession that befell the country in the late summer of 2008. It was "unprecedented;" it "caught experts by surprise;" "virtually no one saw it coming." After all, a recession triggered by a major segment of the economy that was vulnerable to speculation, occurring during a time of high government deficits, cuts in interest rates, and tax reductions combined with dramatic increases in federal spending? When has that happened before? “Dozens of times, if not more, during the last one hundred and fifty years or so,” says Richard Grossman, professor of economics, economic historian…
Richard Grossman, professor of economics, is the author of the book, Unsettled Account: The Evolution of Banking in the Industrialized World since 1800, published by Princeton University Press in June 2010. The 400-page book provides a comparative history of banking focusing on four types of events that have been central to the lifecycle of banking systems: crises, bailouts, mergers and regulatory reform.