Finance
What Did the Last Four Years Teach Us about Managing Inflation?
William English, a professor in the practice of finance and a former economist at the Federal Reserve, discusses lessons learned from central banks’ responses to four-plus years of extraordinary economic disruption.
How does a sovereign wealth fund operate?
Sovereign wealth funds have become a source of controversy. They have the size — several trillion dollars and growing — to swing or stabilize markets. Meanwhile, their sometimes secretive strategies have invited worries that they could be used as tools of government policy. Jeffrey E. Garten, former SOM dean and former undersecretary of commerce for international trade, talked to Ng Kok Song, the managing director and group chief investment officer at the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, about how one of the world’s largest SWFs is run.
How do we write about capital?
Catherine Labio, an associate professor of comparative literature and French at Yale, studies the relationship between economics, fiction, and art. She teaches a course called Fictions of Capital, which explores the depiction of money and the economy from the 17th century to the present.
Did innovation cause the credit crisis?
By 2006, the subprime market had grown to 20% of the total U.S. mortgage market, and 75% of these loans were securitized and sold off to investors around the world, facilitating an influx of capital. With credit easily available, more people than ever before were able to buy homes — but then the market seized up.
Is something new happening with private equity?
From 2005 through the middle of 2007, one public company after another was bought out and went private. The size of the deals escalated — Hertz for $15 billion, HCA for $33 billion, Equity Office Properties for $39 billion, TXU Energy for $44 billion. Then the megadeals stopped. Andrew Metrick explains what happened.
What is a long life worth?
A document from 1787 Holland lists the names of girls whose income from government annuities was pooled and securitized, allowing investors to essentially bet that the girls would live a long time. Yale SOM Professors Will Goetzmann and Geert Rouwenhorst discuss how this novel financial device functioned and how it fits in the story of the development of more and more sophisticated securities.
Can markets change society?
Professor Zhiwu Chen has been watching what’s happened as China adopts such financial instruments as mortgages and mutual funds. He was born in a rural village in China, and when he goes back, he says, he sees a country that’s being remade by markets.