The Financial Crisis and the Path of Reform

LAPA is pleased to welcome Michael Barr, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and key architect of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, will discuss the origins of the financial crisis, and will assess the extent to which reforms help consumers, make the system safer, and end "too big to fail."

Barr is Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School, and a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and at the Brookings Institution. He served from 2009-2010 as the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions. Barr was a key architect of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and played a central role in the Administration's housing finance policies. At Michigan, Barr teaches financial institutions and international financial regulation, among other courses. Barr conducts large-scale empirical research regarding financial services and writes about a wide range of issues in financial regulation. Recent books include "Insufficient Funds" and "Building Inclusive Financial Systems." Barr is a Contributor for CNBC and a frequent commentator on financial and housing issues. Barr previously served as Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin's Special Assistant, as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, as Special Advisor to President William J. Clinton, as Special Advisor and Counselor on the Policy Planning Staff at the State Department, and as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter and Judge Pierre N. Leval of the Southern District of New York. He received his J.D. from Yale Law School, an M. Phil in International Relations from Magdalen College, Oxford University, as a Rhodes Scholar, and his B.A., summa cum laude, with Honors in History, from Yale University.

This event is cosponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School the Bendheim Center for Finance, and the Economics Department.