Jeffrey Lacker, economists to discuss public investment at April 9 Global Society of Fellows conference

Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Ellen Hughes-Cromwick, chief economist for Ford Motor Company, and Richard Vague, managing partner of Gabriel Investments, are among featured speakers at the Global Society of Fellows conference April 9 at the University of Richmond.

Titled “When Public Investment is No Longer an Oxymoron: Fiscal Policy in Liquidity Trap Conditions,” the conference is sponsored by the Global Society of Fellows, part of the Global Interdependence Center, a nonprofit organization that encourages the expansion of global dialogue and free trade. Co-sponsors are Richmond’s School of Arts & Sciences and Robins School of Business.

The conference will be held in Tyler Haynes Commons, Alice Haynes Room, from 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m., and is free and open to the public. Registration is required at http://bit.ly/gicgsf13.

Lacker will speak at 9:30 a.m. about “Ending Too Big to Fail is Going to be Hard Work.” Hughes-Cromwick and Joshua Cregger, an auto industry analyst, will speak at 10:30 a.m. about “Financing the Infrastructure to Support Alternative Fuel Vehicles: How Much Investment is Needed and How Will it be Funded?” Vague and Robert Hockett, professor of law at Cornell University Law School, will speak at 11:30 a.m. about “How to Predict the Next Financial Crisis.”

Afternoon sessions will feature Paul McCulley, chair of the Global Society of Fellows, and Zoltan Pozsar, visiting scholar at the International Monetary Fund, who will discuss “Helicopter Money: Or How I Stopped Worrying and Love Fiscal-Monetary Cooperation;” and two University of Richmond economics professors – Dean Croushore and Robert Dolan -- who will discuss “Public Investment: Facts and Fantasies.”

About the speakers

Lacker has been chief executive of the Fifth District Federal Reserve Bank since 2004. He was a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee, or FOMC, in 2006, 2009 and 2012. Prior to joining the bank, he was an assistant professor of economics at the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University. He began at the bank in 1989 as an economist in the banking area of the research department. He became research officer in 1994, vice president in 1996 and senior vice president and director of research in May 1999.

Hughes-Cromwick oversees Ford’s corporate economics and strategic issues group, with responsibility for the company’s global automotive industry analysis and forecasts used to support planning. Prior to joining Ford, she worked in banking and higher education. She is a board member of the National Bureau for Economic Research and past president of the National Association for Business Economics.

Vague is managing partner of Gabriel Investments and chairman of The Governor’s Woods Foundation, a nonprofit philanthropic organization. He previously was co-founder, chair and CEO of Energy Plus, an electricity and natural gas supply company that was purchased by NRG Energy in 2011. He also was co-founder and CEO of two credit card companies – First USA, which grew to be the largest Visa issuer in the industry, and Juniper Financial.

McCulley, chair of the GIC Society of Fellows, formerly was senior partner at PIMCO, a fixed income investment advisory firm, where he was a member of the Investment Committee, manager of multi-billion dollar portfolios and founding author of the research publication, Global Central Bank Focus.

Pozsar is visiting scholar at the International Monetary Fund. He was a featured speaker, working with Paul McCulley, at the inaugural society meeting at the Banque de France in March 2012. His research has explored regulation and the shadow banking system from a macro-prudential perspective. He formerly was with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Markets Desk.

Cregger is an industry analyst for the Center for Automotive Research. His work focuses on economic and public policy analysis as well as developments in connected vehicle technology.

Hockett is a professor of law at Cornell University Law School. His principal research and teaching interests lie in the fields of organizational and financial law and economics, particularly as they relate to economic "globalization" and distributive justice concerns.

Croushore is professor of economics and Rigsby Fellow in Economics at University of Richmond. He is a former vice president and economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

Dolan is professor of economics at University of Richmond. He teaches and researches public economics, economics and education, and benefit/cost analysis and evaluation.

Questions relative to President Lacker should be directed to Laura Fortunato, Laura.Fortunato@rich.frb.org or 804-697-8196.

For questions about the University of Richmond, contact Linda Evans at levans2@richmond.edu or 804-289-8056.

 ###