Financial Crisis: Causes, Remedies and the Future

watch event footage>>  |  download Quicktime>>  |  about the speakers>>

On October 22, the Robinson community convened in Veterans Memorial Hall for a Town Hall-style conversation featuring a panel of experts from the college as they discussed the causes, remedies and future of the current financial crisis. Panel attendees emailed their questions prior to the event.

Watch Event Footage
Topic/Question
  • Welcome and Speaker Introductions
  • an insider's view on what has caused this crisis
  • current remedies that are being implemented
  • insight into what will happen over the next year or two
  • how students and professionals can protect themselves

    watch the clip>>Quicktime icon(21:55)
  • I've heard the FDIC has only about $45 billion in its insurance fund, while the potential losses are much larger. What are the implications of this situation, and is my money really safe in an insured bank?

    watch the clip>>Quicktime icon(00:43)

    If you go back to summer 2007 and rank the top 20 financial institutions worldwide, and you look at which ones of them have either had capital from a sovereign fund, capital from a government or they no longer exist, nine of them are no longer on that list. That's quite a mortality rate for a system that was set up so banks go insolvent only once every 250 years. So if these large banks are getting larger, does this pose even a bigger systemic risk on the financial system?

    watch the clip>>Quicktime icon(06:54)
    Residential real estate was the cause of this problem. Are you nervous about any other market?

    watch the clip>>Quicktime icon(02:31)
    Do you see the bailout of the banks as doing anything good for the credit card holders?

    watch the clip>>Quicktime icon(00:34)
    Do you think the proposed Fair Tax plan could have been a solution to this crisis as the supporters suggest?

    watch the clip>>Quicktime icon(00:50)
    Based on information available in mid-2007, what should I have done with my investable assets to protect myself?

    watch the clip>>Quicktime icon(04:38)
    Please explain what securitization is and how it came to be such a big part of the financial markets. Was it something that accelerated the crisis we have today?

    watch the clip>>Quicktime icon (03:46)
    The government let Lehman Brothers fail and it saved other banks. Do you think more banks should be allowed to fail, or do you think more banks will continue to be propped up?

    watch the clip>>Quicktime icon(01:30)

    The U.S. dollar has appreciated quite a lot during this crisis, which makes it more expensive for international students to come to school here at Georgia State. Why is the U.S. dollar appreciating, and do you expect it to continue to do so?

    Do we have a liquidity crisis or a savings crisis in the United States?

    watch the clip>>Quicktime icon(02:20)

    My friend interned at the FDIC a few years ago. And he used to talk with me about the FDIC's fear of subprime loans and the looming bank failures back then. Why didn't the bank regulators do something about it when they had the chance?

    watch the clip>>Quicktime icon(07:17)
    This issue has been highly politicized in the current election environment. Can specific blame be assigned to a particular party, group or individual?

    watch the clip>>Quicktime icon(03:08)
    For those who are still in school and have yet to launch a career, what skills or experience would you recommend to still launch that successful career?

    watch the clip>>Quicktime icon(03:46)
    Is Georgia State considering curriculum changes as a result of anything we've seen here to date?

    Where do you expect the Dow Jones Industrial to be one year from today?

    watch the clip>>Quicktime icon(01:13)


    graphic of a puzzle piece with the image of a $100 bill



    Rich PhillipsEvent Moderator
    Rich Phillips,
    Bruce A. Palmer Professor and Chair,
    Risk Management and Insurance Department




    Ken BernhardtEvent Facilitator

    Ken Bernhardt,
    Assistant Dean for Corporate Relations,
    Regents' Professor,
    Taylor E. Little, Jr. Professor of Marketing

    About the Speakers

    Conrad Ciccotello

    Conrad Ciccotello, Ph.D., JD
    Associate Professor and Director of Personal Financial Planning
    As an expert on law and finance and a fellow in the TIAA-CREF Institute, Professor Ciccotello will discuss what this crisis means for jobs in finance and other sectors of the economy, and also offer advice for individual investors.



    Peter Eisemann Peter Eisemann, Ph.D.
    H. Talmage Dobbs, Jr. Professor of Teaching Excellence and Professor of Finance
    As an expert on banks and other financial institutions, Professor Eisemann will discuss the remedies currently being implemented and the likely impact on business.



    George Zanjani

    George Zanjani, Ph.D.
    Associate Professor of Risk Management and Insurance

    Prior to joining the Robinson faculty earlier this fall, Professor Zanjani was a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He will provide an insider's view of the causes of the crisis and lessons to be learned.