William Dunkelberg
 | Professor of Economics at Temple University, Formerly Dean of the Fox School of Business The "Credit Crunch" Many
people are concerned about the current state of our nation's credit
markets. There are many different opinions and there is a lot of
confusion abroad. In this one-session seminar, nationally prominent
economist Professor Bill Dunkelberg, known for the clarity of his
explanations, explains the main factors at work in the current
situation. "The
Federal Reserve alerted us to a problem in credit markets in August,
2007. In September, they surprised markets with a 50 basis point cut
in the Federal Funds rate and lamented that credit markets were
"frozen", "malfunctioning", "unstable". Following this was a sequence
of cuts and warnings about recession risk and an economic slowdown.
What was the source of the alleged credit market failure? Did housing
cause all of this? Is this just a Wall Street problem (for a dozen
large financial institutions) or is it happening on Main Street? Who
cares if the Bank of America doesn't trust Citicorp and won't lend to
them? Can the Fed's policies fix this (the cure for the ills of easy
money is more easy money?)? Can these Wall Street problems bring down
the whole economy? Can we talk ourselves into recession? These and
other questions will be addressed using a heavy dose of facts to deal
with fictions." To listen to the audio recording press the play button This is an audio recording divided into sections correlated with 23 exhibits used during the seminar. Start listening here. |
below.