Understanding the economic crisis from a variety of points of view: University of Chicago faculty provide their perspectives

Faculty at the University of Chicago have weighed in with a diverse array of ideas and opinions on the nation's financial crisis in recent days. Below you will find a sampling of pieces by scholars such as Gary Becker, University Professor in Economics; Richard Posner, Senior Lecturer in the Law School; Luigi Zingales, Robert C. McCormack Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance at the Graduate School of Business, and Anil Kashyap, Edward Eagle Brown Prof. of Economics and Finance at the Graduate School of Business.

We will continue to update this site as news develops and new perspectives emerge.

• Professor John Cochrane, June 22, 2010:
  Chicago Booth Professor John Cochrane looks at the potential of inflation
• Professor John Cochrane, May 18, 2010:
  Chicago Booth Professor John Cochrane says the Euro is undermined by Greek crisis
• Professor Casey Mulligan, May 5, 2010:
  Professor Casey Mulligan says the market was at work in recent drop in housing prices
• Professor Raghuram Rajan, April 1, 2010:
  Chicago Booth Professor Rajan suggests ways to strengthen finance legislation
• Professor Casey Mulligan, March 1, 2010:
  Prof. Casey Mulligan points out why increased government spending doesn't boost economic output
• Professor Casey Mulligan, February 26, 2010:
  Professor Casey Mulligan discusses alternatives for federal mortgage modification guidelines
• Professor Casey Mulligan, January 27, 2010:
  Professor Casey Mulligan explains impact of personal savings on budget deficit
• Professor Richard Posner, January 7, 2010:
  Professor Posner says economists are responsible for some of the reasonsfor financial crisis
• Professors Gary Becker, Steven Davis, and Kevin Murphy, January 4, 2010:
  Chicago professors explain why recovery has been slow
• Professor Casey Mulligan, December 12, 2009:
  Professor Casey Mulligan looks at the connection between Cook County taxes and the recession
• Professor Casey Mulligan, November 11, 2009:
  Professor Casey Mulligan looks at connections between employment growth and productivity
• Professor Anil Kashyap, November 9, 2009:
  Chicago Booth Professor Kashyap Opposes Government Accountability Office to Monitor Fed
• Professor Casey Mulligan, November 4, 2009:
  Professor Casey Mulligan looks at connection between consumer spending and falling employment
• Professor John List, November 3, 2009:
  Professor John List looks at incentives for executive pay
• Professor John Cochrane, November 2, 2009:
  Professor John Cochrane says the New-Keynesian approach to economics provides little useful guidance to the Fed
• Professor Casey Mulligan, October 21, 2009:
  Professor Casey Mulligan looks at the connections between banks and recession
• Professor Steve Davis, October 14, 2009:
  Chicago Booth Professor Steve Davis suggests ways to boot employment
• Professor Richard Epstein, October 12, 2009:
  Law Professor Richard Epstein suggests deregulation to spur economy
• Professor Casey Mulligan, October 7, 2009:
  Professor Mulligan points out bank bailout did not lead to increased lending
• Professor John Cochrane, September 24, 2009:
  Professor John Cochrane advises Congress on ways to respond to future bank crises
• Professors Gary Becker and Richard Posner, September 14, 2009:
  Professors Becker and Posner discuss prospects for recovery
• Professors Atif Mian and Amir Sufi, September 10, 2009:
  Chicago Booth Professors Atif Mian and Amir Sufi discuss lessons of the crisis
• Professor Casey Mulligan, September 9, 2009:
  Professor Casey Mulligan looks at the role of incentives in understanding the financial crisis
• Professor Luigi Zingales, September 8, 2009:
  Chicago Booth Professor Zingales looks at crisis' impact on public opinion
• Professor Casey Mulligan, August 19, 2009:
  Professor Casey Mulligan looks at labor supply and the recession
• Professor Casey Mulligan, August 13, 2009:
  School's Out for Summer: A Gem in the Jobs Report
• Professor Casey Mulligan, July 15, 2009:
  Stimulus Package Isn't Working
• Professor Luigi Zingales, July 13, 2009:
  Why crisis undermines New York's world dominance in financial leadership
• Professor Casey Mulligan, July 1, 2009:
  Prof. Casey Mulligan says a future shift to equities investment could fuel inflation
• Professor Anil Kashyap, June 29, 2009:
  Why we need a funeral plan for banks
• Senior Lecturer Richard Posner, June 24, 2009:
  Sr. Lecturer Richard Posner discusses problems with new financial regulations
• Professor Casey Mulligan, June 24, 2009:
  Prof. Casey Mulligan looks at the prospects for inflation
• Professor Harald Uhlig, June 22, 2009:
  Professor Harald Uhlig looks at bank runs from a 2008 perspective
• Senior Lecturer Allen Sanderson, June 7, 2009:
  Allen Sanderson questions value of stimulus package
• Professor Harald Uhlig, May 26, 2009:
  Monetary policy in Europe vs the US: what explains the difference?
• Senior Lecturer Richard Posner, May 7, 2009:
  Richard Posner describes a crisis in capitalism
• Prof. Casey B. Mulligan, May 6, 2009:
  Casey Mulligan finds recession may push women into majority of labor force for first time
• Prof. Raghuram G. Rajan, May 6, 2009:
  Professor Raghuram Rajan testifies at a Senate Banking Committee hearing
• Profs. Douglas W. Diamond and Raghuram G. Rajan, April 20, 2009:
  Fear of fire sales and the credit squeeze
• Prof. Gary Becker and Senior Lecturer Richard Posner, April 13, 2009:
  Is the Stock Market an "Efficient" Market?--Posner
• Prof. Richard Thaler, April 11, 2009:
  How Behavioral Economics Can Make Americans Save
• Prof. Raghuram Rajan, April 8, 2009:
  Cycle-proof regulation
• Prof. Casey B. Mulligan, April 8, 2009:
  Waiting for the Subsidy
• Senior Lecturer Andrew M. Rosenfield, April 5, 2009:
  How to Clean a Dirty Bank
• Prof. Luigi Zingales, March 25, 2009:
  The new Geithner plan is a flop
• Profs. Gary Becker and Kevin Murphy, March 20, 2009:
  Do not let the 'cure' destroy capitalism
• Profs. Eric Posner and Luigi Zingales, March 2, 2009:
  The Better, Cheaper Mortgage Fix
• Profs. Douglas W. Diamond and Raghuram Rajan, February 24, 2009:
  The Credit Crisis: Conjectures about Causes and Remedies
• Profs. Eric A. Posner and Luigi Zingales, February 23, 2009:
  The Housing Crisis and Bankruptcy Reform: The Prepackaged Chapter 13 Approach
• Prof. Steven Kaplan, February 17, 2009:
  Restricting bank executives' pay would stall recovery
• Prof. Casey B. Mulligan, February 16, 2009:
  What Caused the Recession of 2008? Hints from Labor Productivity
• Prof. Christian Leuz, February 9, 2009:
  We Need Smarter Regulation, Not More
• Prof. Gary Becker and Senior Lecturer Richard Posner, February 8, 2009:
  Against the Pay Caps--Posner
• Prof. Luigi Zingales, February 7, 2009:
  From Awful to Merely Bad: Reviewing the Bank Rescue Options
• Audio Discussion of Prof. Steven Kaplan, February 5, 2009:
  If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys
• Prof. Michael Gibbs, January 29, 2009:
  Getting staff on your side
• Audio Discussion of Prof. Luigi Zingales, January 21, 2009:
  Luigi Zingales Opposes U.S. Bank Nationalization
• Prof. Luigi Zingales, January 21, 2009:
  Let's Stimulate Private Risk Taking
• Prof. Luigi Zingales, January 19, 2009:
  Yes we can, Mr Geithner
• Prof. Eugene F. Fama, January 5, 2009:
  Government Equity Capital for Financial Firms
• Prof.Casey B. Mulligan, December 24, 2008:
  Are Employers Unwilling to Hire, or Are Some Workers Unwilling to Work?
• Prof.Robert E. Lucas Jr., December 23, 2008:
  Bernanke Is the Best Stimulus Right Now
• Prof. Luigi Zingales, December 20, 2008:
  Greenspan roundtable: The wrong prescription
• Prof. Steven Levitt, December 13, 2008:
  'Freakonomics' For Freaky Economics
• Prof. Casey B. Mulligan, December 5, 2008:
  Don't forgive that way!
• Prof. Casey B. Mulligan, November 25, 2008:
  A Depressing Scenario: Mortgage Debt Becomes Unemployment Insurance
• Associate prof. Joshua Rauh and prof. Luigi Zingales, November 23, 2008:
  Bankruptcy to save GM
• Prof. John Cochrane, November 12, 2008:
  Is Now the Time to Buy Stocks?
• Profs. Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, November 11, 2008:
  Human frailty caused this crisis
• Prof. Raghuram Rajan, November 11, 2008:
  What G20 leaders must do to stabilise our economy and fix the financial system
• Prof. Sebastien Gay, November 10, 2008:
  Where is the crisis heading?
• Profs. Atif Mian, Amir Sufi, and Francesco Trebbi, November 6, 2008:
  The Political Economy of the U.S. Mortgage Default Crisis
• Prof. Casey Mulligan, November 4, 2008:
  Market Responses to the Panic of 2008
• Profs. Luigi Zingalesand Pietro Veronesi, November 3, 2008:
  Paulson's Gift
• Prof. Casey Mulligan, November 3, 2008:
  Inflated Deflation
• Video of Prof. Douglas Diamond, October 28, 2008:
  "The Current Financial Crisis, Other Recent Crises, and the Role of Short-term Debt"
• Prof. Steven Kaplan, October 17, 2008:
  "The Bailout: A Primer"
• Prof. Emeritus Robert Aliber, October 16, 2008:
  "A better way to revive credit markets"
• Audio Discussion of Prof. Steven Kaplan, October 15, 2008:
  "Steve Kaplan talks about government restrictions on executive pay as a result of the bailout"
• Prof. Doug W. Diamond, October 15, 2008:
  "Should Banks Be Recapitalized?"
• Profs. Doug W. Diamond and Anil K Kashyap, October 15, 2008:
  "Everything You Need to Know About the Financial Crisis: A Guest Post by Diamond and Kashyap"
• Profs. Anil K Kashyap, Raghuram Rajan, and John Cochrane, October 14, 2008:
  "A Thumbs Up From the Ivory Tower"
• Prof. Luigi Zingales, October 11, 2008:
  "Plan B"
• Prof. Raghuram Rajan, October 10, 2008:
  "Financial development at risk"
• Profs. Douglas W Diamond, Anil K Kashyap, and Raghuram Rajan, October 9, 2008:
  "What next?"
• Prof. Christian Leuz, Ocober 9, 2008:
  "Get Real About the Financial Crisis"
• Audio Discussion of Prof. Anil Kashyap, Ocober 9, 2008:
  "Can US Still Claim It's A 'Free Market'?"
• Prof. Casey Mulligan, Ocober 9, 2008:
  "An Economy You Can Bank On"
• Prof. Gary Becker, October 7, 2008:
  "We're Not Headed for a Depression"
• Video Discussion of Prof. Luigi Zingales, October 6, 2008:
  "C-SPAN's Washington Journal interview program"
• Prof. Luigi Zingales, October 6, 2008:
  "Oral Testimony on the Causes and Effects of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy" (38 KB)
• Prof. Luigi Zingales, October 6, 2008:
  "Written Testimony on the Causes and Effects of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy" (131 KB)
• Prof. Luigi Zingales, October 2, 2008:
  "How to fix the credit mess without a government bailout: quickie bankruptcies"
• Prof. John Cochrane, October 2, 2008:
  "Why the Bailout Plan Would Be a Disaster"
• Prof. Richard Epstein, September 30, 2008:
  "The Christmas Tree Effect"
• Associate Prof. Jane Dailey and Prof. David Nirenberg, September 30, 2008:
  "Whatever Happened to the Commonwealth?"
• Prof. Luigi Zingales, September 29, 2008:
  "Why Paulson is Wrong: Saving capitalism from the capitalists"
• Prof. Steven Kaplan, September 29, 2008:
  "Kaplan: Pay Curbs May Weaken Bailout"
• Prof. Luigi Zingales, September 29, 2008:
  "Debating Paulson's Bailout: It's a Big Price"
• Prof. Casey B. Mulligan, September 28, 2008:
  "Wall Street Will Drown Alone"
• Prof. John Cochrane, September 27, 2008:
  "Economist Leads Push Against The Bailout"
• Video of Prof. Raghuram Rajan, September 26, 2008:
  "Origins of the current financial crisis and possible solutions"
• Prof. Robert Shimer, September 26, 2008:
  "The Case against the Paulson Plan"
• Prof. Erik Hurst, September 26, 2008:
  "Erik Hurst on the Risks of Re-Regulation"
• Audio Discussion of Prof. Luigi Zingales, September 24, 2008:
  "Considering the Alternatives: What are the Options Around a $700 Billion Bailout?"
• Prof. Luigi Zingales, September 24, 2008:
  "Let's Get the Bank Rescue Right"
• Prof. Luigi Zingales, September 24, 2008:
  "Reject Henry Paulson's raw deal - there's a far better solution"
• Prof. Anil K Kashyap, September 23, 2008:
  "The $700 Billion Question"
• Prof. Richard Epstein, September 23, 2008:
  "Greed, Or Incentives?"
• Prof. Raghuram Rajan, September 19: 2008:
  "Desperate times need the right measures"
• Video Discussion of Profs. Raghuram Rajan, Luigi Zingales, Anil Kashyap and Brian Barry, September 19, 2008:
  "What's Happening and What the Government Should Do About It"
• Profs. Doug Diamond and Anil K Kashyap, September 18, 2008:
  "Diamond and Kashyap on the Recent Financial Upheavals"