Economist Menzie Chinn will explore the origins and long-term effects of the U.S. financial crisis in a La Follette School seminar on Tuesday, February 21, from noon to 1 p.m. in the school’s conference room.
The school will broadcast the talk live online.
Chinn will approach the crisis from a historical and comparative perspective, forwarding the thesis that the massive inflow of foreign funds financed the booms in housing prices and consumer spending that fueled the economy until the collapse of late 2008. He will also explore the political and economic implications of the crisis for the United States and Europe.
Chinn is co-author of the book Lost Decades: The Making of America's Debt Crisis and an Update on the Prospects for the Long Recovery, written with Jeffry Frieden of Harvard University. Chinn is also a contributor to Econbrowser, a weblog on macroeconomic issues. This spring, he is teaching the course Macroeconomic Policy and International Financial Regulation.
— posted February 16, 2012; updated February 21, 2012