The U.S. Financial Crisis: What Happened? What's Next?

In this video, an MIT panel discusses the current national economic news with the Institute community.

Panelists include:

Ricardo Caballero (Economics)
Bengt Holmstrom (Economics)
Andrew Lo (MIT Sloan)
James Poterba (Economics)
William Wheaton (Center for Real Estate/Economics)

MIT Sloan Professor Simon Johnson, former chief economist for the International Monetary Fund, is leading a conversation on his blog about the current global financial crisis. He aims to help non-specialists understand the roots of the crisis as well as ongoing proposals and developments as the situation unfolds. Visit his blog, The Baseline Scenario.

Are bailouts the best solution?

Government interventions to directly inject liquidity into the market may actually decrease market efficiency, according to research by MIT Sloan School of Management Professor Jiang Wang. Wang advocates instead that the government persuade financial institutions to collectively agree to increase liquidity on their own, which, as his findings support, has the potential to improve the long-run welfare of the economy.

Upcoming Events

Oct. 15: MIT alumna Rachel Bratt will show how the subprime crisis takes us several steps away from positive movement toward a "Right to Housing." 12:30 pm in Room 3-401/403

Oct. 28: "A Conversation with George Soros: The New Paradigm for Financial Markets" with Ricardo Caballero, head of MIT's Department of Economics. 3:30 pm in Kresge Auditorium.