Justin Wolfers, Fast Politics: "Because of a much broader and much harder truth, which is that even if you're the most fervent believer in market forces, well-run markets require regulation. And nowhere is that more clearly the case than when...
Justin Wolfers, CNN: "I think the simple view is you can't do two things at the same time. And to try to reduce financial stress would be a force for lower interest rates while trying to reduce inflation would lead to higher interest rates. On the...
The collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) set off alarms in the financial sector, with flashbacks to the 2008 financial crisis and increased worries about an impending recession. Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, both professors of public...
Betsey Stevenson, ABC Australia: "We had [Dodd Frank] regulations put in certain stress tests that banks needed to meet certain liquidity requirements, certain capitalization requirements, and those were for anybody with anything that's over $US50...
Financial expert and Ford School Professor of Practice Adrienne Harris has been nominated to serve as the Superintendent of the Department of Financial Services by New York Governor Kathy Hochul.
In her new role, Harris will oversee the...
In a recent Market Watch article focusing on the lack of financial regulations in the housing market, Ford School Dean Michael Barr states that “Our politics in Washington right now are pushing us toward a set of steps that will make the financial...
Dean Michael S. Barr's textbook, Financial Regulation: Law and Policy 2d, written with coauthors Howell Jackson and Margaret Tahyar, will be released on August 6, 2018.
Just two years after the publication of the first edition of Financial...
Michael Barr joined noted DC appellate attorney Deepak Gupta as co-counsel on a June 27 amicus brief, submitted by financial regulation scholars and former government officials who have worked to prevent violent non-state actors from accessing the...
As the Republican Party announces regulatory alternatives to the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, which was devised to reform Wall Street, protect consumers, and prevent financial collapse, Marketplace interviews some of the key architects of Dodd-Frank for...
Professor Jeffery Zhang from Michigan Law will be speaking at our February blue bag lunch talk on Wednesday, February 1 at 12pm. The talk will be virtual on Zoom. Please register here by January 31.
Professor Gabriel Rauterberg explores how the public/private divide in U.S. securities markets interact and questions whether the current structure is socially optimal.
Sixty years ago, Congress established a federal pre-approval regime for bank mergers to protect consumers from then-unprecedented consolidation in the banking sector. This process worked well for several decades, but it has since atrophied, producing numerous “too big to fail” banks.
Professor Kress's research contends that regulators’ current approach to evaluating bank merger proposals is poorly suited for modern financial markets. Policymakers and scholars have traditionally focused on a single issue: whether a bank merger would reduce competition. Over the past two decades, however, changes in bank regulation and market structure—including the repeal of interstate banking restrictions and the emergence of nonbank financial service providers—have rendered bank antitrust analysis largely obsolete. As a result, regulators have rubber stamped recent bank mergers, despite evidence that such deals could harm consumers and destabilize financial markets.
Professor Kress's research asserts that contemporary bank merger analysis should instead emphasize statutory factors that regulators have long neglected: whether a proposed merger would increase systemic risks, enhance the public welfare, and strengthen the relevant institutions. Professor Kress's research urges regulators to modernize their approach, and it proposes a novel framework to ensure that bank merger oversight safeguards the financial system. The proposals contained herein have far-reaching implications not only for bank regulation but also for the ongoing debate over merger policy in technology, agriculture, and other industries.
Walter and Leonore Annenberg Auditorium, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Rich Cordray, founding director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Rohit Chopra, Commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission will keynote.
U. S. Department of the Treasury, Cash Room
Washington, DC
The U.S. Office of Financial Research and the University of Michigan’s Center on Finance, Law, and Policy will bring together regulators, policymakers, lawyers, economists, financial institutions, investors, financial technology companies, and experts on data science, cybersecurity, and finance.
Jeffery Zhang presents his research, co-authored with Jeremy Kress, which argues that using the term “macroprudential” to describe modern financial regulation is a myth. February, 2023.
