International Business Center

Bradley Distinguished Lecture Series

The Bradley Distinguished Lecture Series provides our community the opportunity to hear internationally respected scholars, policy experts, and thought leaders who provide important insights into economic policies and actions that reinforce people’s faith in American democratic capitalism and free enterprise, and foster America’s global economic competitiveness, entrepreneurialism and innovation.  Each year, several hundred business leaders, executives, academic leaders, and policy-makers attend the series.

The series is sponsored by UWM’s Lubar College of Business and The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.

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

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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.

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.

Past events have included:

Inflation
Featuring: John H. Cochrane, Rose-Marie and Jack Anderson Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University 
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Debt, Deficits, and Sustainability: The US Fiscal Challenge
Featuring: James Poterba, Mitsui Professor of Economics at MIT and President of the National Bureau of Economic Research
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Reimagining Development: Possible Lessons from India and Implications for the U.S.
Featuring: Dr. Raghuram G. Rajan, Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
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It’s Time to Get Back to Rules-Based Monetary Policy
John B. Taylor, Mary and Robert Raymond Professor of Economics, Stanford University; George P. Shultz Senior Fellow in Economics, Hoover Institution; and Senior Fellow, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.

The Anatomy of Government Failure: Making Government Effective and Affordable
Michael J. Boskin, Tully M. Friedman Professor of Economics and Wohlford Family Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University

U.S. Fiscal Policy and Government Debt: Looking Beyond the Pandemic
James Poterba, Mitsui Professor of Economics at MIT, and President & CEO of the National Bureau of Economic Research
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Disruption’s Wake: The Wall and The Bridge
Glenn Hubbard, Dean Emeritus and Russell L. Carson Professor of Finance and Economics at Columbia Business School
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U.S. Economic Outlook: Is Another Recession Looming?
Randall S. Kroszner, Norman R. Bobins Professor of Economics and Deputy Dean for Executive Programs at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago

The Administrative Threat to Civil Liberties
Philip Hamburger, J.D. Maurice and Hilda Friedman Professor of Law at Columbia Law School

Is Tax Reform the Impossible Dream?
James M. Poterba, Mitsui Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,and President of the National Bureau of Economic Research

Inequality, Human Capital and Growth: Implications for U.S. Economic Policy
Kevin M. Murphy, George J. Stigler Distinguished Service Professor of Economics, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business

The Dodd-Frank Act and the Unending Growth of the Administrative State
Peter J. Wallison, Arthur F. Burns Chair in Financial Market Studies and
Co-director of American Enterprise Institute’s (“AEI”) program on financial market deregulation.

“What Will Determine Our Economic Future?
Michael J. Boskin, Tully M. Friedman Professor of Economics & Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University