Bradley Distinguished Lecture Series

Mortgage Finance Policy, Monetary Policy and Financial Crises
Douglas W. Diamond, 2022 recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences and Merton H. Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance, University of Chicago – Booth School of Business

United States government policies have had a large influence on the types of available home mortgages since 1932. Those policies and many subsequent policy changes have been in response to financial crises. However, a large fraction of subsequent financial crises have been related to problems with mortgage finance. Examples of such crises include the US Savings and Loan crisis of1980s and 1990s, the Great Financial Crisis of 2007-2008 and the Silicon Valley Bank run of 2023.

This lecture will review the history of government policy toward mortgages, focusing on the changes in policies adopted after subsequent crises. In addition to changes in mortgage policies, bank regulation and the rules for federal deposit insurance changed after each crisis. Some of these policy changes were flawed and sowed the seeds for a subsequent crisis.

In addition to housing finance policy, previous monetary policy appears to have been an important trigger for many of these financial crises. Professor Diamond will describe his views on the nature of the monetary policy mistakes, especially those in the last decade. He will describe improvements that are needed in monetary policy implementation, financial supervision and financial regulation.

About the Speaker

Douglas W. Diamond is the 2022 recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his groundbreaking research on banks and financial crises. He specializes in the study of financial intermediaries, financial crises, and liquidity. Diamond is the Merton H. Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.

Dr. Diamond is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, is a fellow of the American Finance Association and was president of the American Finance Association. He received the Onassis Prize in Finance in 2018, the CME Group- Mathematical Sciences Research Institute Prize in Innovative Quantitative Applications in 2016 and the Morgan Stanley-American Finance Association Award for Excellence in Finance in 2012.

Dr. Diamond has taught at Yale and was a visiting professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology as well as the University of Bonn. Diamond earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Brown University in 1975. He earned master’s degrees in 1976 and 1977 and a PhD in 1980 in economics from Yale University.

Registration Required

Lunch will be provided.
Sponsored by UWM’s Lubar College of Business and The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.