real 
wages 
—wages 
adjusted 

for inflation — have grown and 
income has increased for people 
in lower and middle classes. But 
Furman said despite these factors, 
the United States’ recovery is not 
complete.

He cited lowered productivity 

growth, which is the measure 
of 
efficiency 
of 
production, 

as a longer-term issue for the 
economy and said the decline 
seen in the the levels of firm entry 
and growth results in the decline 
of competition in the economy.

Furman 
also 
discussed 

increased inequality following 
the recession, which he said 
resulted from a rising demand for 
skilled labor and a slower increase 
in the rate of education. He added 
that an increase in unionization 
resulted 
in 
an 
increase 
in 

percentage of money going to the 
bottom percent, noting that the 
real value of the minimum wage 
has decreased.

“(The United States) is not 

just higher than everyone else in 
terms of the share when we talk 
1 percent, but also has seen faster 
increase in inequality for the top 1 
percent than in other countries,” 
he said.

Furman cited decreased labor 

force participation. Furman said 
the 
labor 
force 
participation 

as another barrier, saying the 
participation rate peaked in the 
1950s, but has been declining ever 
since.

“For women, we saw this big 

increase which is what caused the 
overall increase, but that stopped 
around 2000, has declined since 
then, and there’s a huge gap 
between the trend we were on 
and what has happened since 
then,” he said.

Along 
with 
the 
economy, 

Furman 
discussed 
effects 
of 

policies 
enacted 
during 
the 

Obama 
administration. 
He 

said the Affordable Care Act, 
or “Obamacare,” has shrunk 
the uninsured rate to below 10 
percent for the first time, and 
health care spending has grown 
slowly in both public and private 
sectors.

Rackham 
student 
Elird 

Haxhiu, an attendee, stressed 
the importance of learning about 
public policy, and said Furman 
brought up very interesting points 
about inequality, job growth and 
wage stagnation.

“I wasn’t aware that the female 

labor force participation had been 
declining since the 2000s; that 
was new to me,” Haxhiu said. “It 
was interesting to hear some of 
the policymakers reiterate some 
of the same things that we talk 

about. When we’re voting for 
leaders, I think it’s important to 
know that their proposals could 
actually go in practice and what 
effect those proposals might 
have.”

Public 
Policy 
graduate 

student Esi Hutchful echoed this 
sentiment, noting the overlap 
between material covered in the 
talk and her economics classes.

“That moment he talked about 

the thought experiment he did 
on his own, on what would have 
happened if productivity would 
have increased and everything 
else stayed the same, if wages 
increased and everything else 
stayed the same, etc., was really 
interesting,” Hutchful said.

She 
also 
said 
the 
talk 

highlighted 
importance 
of 

understanding public policy and 
how it can lead the nation to be 
more informed and participate in 
political discussions.

“Public 
policy 
really 

determines everything you can 
touch on and determines potential 
solutions to the problems we 
have now — it’s where we are 
able to define what exactly these 
problems are, who are going to 
be the winners and losers of any 
given policy,” Hutchful said. 
“Even if you’re not determining 
what the policy is, being able to 
understand that conversation is 
obviously really important.”

3-News

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Tuesday, November 29, 2016 — 3

AARON BAKER/Daily

Johns Hopkins University professor Laurence Ball discusses whether Lehman Brothers should have been bailed out by the 
Federal Reserve at Hutchins Hall Monday. 

must recount the votes so we can 
build trust in our election system.”

In 
a 
statement, 
Michigan 

Secretary of State said they are 
confident the ballots were counted 
correctly the first time through.

“The 
detailed 
county 

canvassing process ensures that 
Michigan residents can have full 
confidence in the accuracy and 
integrity of the results,” the site 
reads.

Gov. Rick Snyder said there 

are no problems with the ballots 
in Michigan in a tweet Monday 
evening, and added that Trump 
and Vice President-elect Mike 
Pence need to now focus solely on 
governing.

BALLOTS
From Page 1

silently out of view or fight 
only if necessary.

Additional 
tweets 
from 

emergency 
management 

requested that students seek 
shelter in place and asked that 
students only contact police if 
they have new information.

University 
of 
Michigan 

Division of Public Safety and 
Security spokesperson Diane 
Brown said University police 
are aware of the situation and 
are continuing to patrol Ann 
Arbor carefully in the wake of 
OSU’s situation

“Our officers are aware of 

the situation and are diligent 
in 
their 
U-M 
patrols,” 

she said. “As always, we 
encourage anyone who sees 
something suspicious to call 
911 right away.”

University 
spokesperson 

Rick Fitzgerald wrote in a 
statement that the University 
is glad the injured were 
attended 
to 
quickly 
and 

situation was handled.

“We followed closely the 

situation this morning on the 
Ohio State campus and we 
were heartened to learn that 
the injured are being treated 
and police quickly stopped 
the attack,” he wrote.

As the news spread Monday 

morning, many University of 
Michigan students, staff and 
units expressed support for 
OSU online.

LSA Dean Andrew Martin 

also tweeted in solidarity 
from his personal account.

OSU
From Page 1 

history.

In 
his 
remarks, 
Ball 

emphasized that the bankruptcy 
played a role in the economic 
recession that began in 2008, 
saying that despite other large 
investment firms also failing 
around 
the 
same 
time, 
he 

believes Lehman’s bankruptcy 
was particularly consequential.

“I think it’s quite possible to 

likely that the financial crisis 
would’ve been less severe had 
Lehman been rescued,” Ball said.

Citing 
the 
disruption, 
he 

challenged the Federal Reserve’s 
choice not to bail it out, saying 
the reserve could have kept all of 
the Lehman Brothers Holdings 
Inc. in operation for months with 
well-secured liquidity support.

Instead, 
he 
said 
Federal 

Reserve officials claimed they 
did not have the legal authority 
to lend Lehman the money it 
needed to survive. The Federal 
Reserve used Section 13-3 of the 
Federal Reserve Act, which states 
Federal Reserve officials cannot 
take on substantial financial risk, 

to justify their decision. But Ball 
said his calculations show they 
could have prevented Lehman’s 
bankruptcy 
with 
negligible 

risk, because Lehman had $570 
billion of available collateral. 
Only an $88 billion loan would 
therefore have been necessary 
to substantially aid the Lehman 
firm.

He also charged that they 

chose not to bailout Lehman 
because 
of 
intense 
political 

opposution and a waning hope 
that 
the 
damage 
could 
be 

contained.

“My assessment of the Fed is 

that a lot of the claims they make 
are contradicted by evidence,” he 
said. “Their reasoning would not 
go over well on an undergraduate 
banking test.”

Ball also noted that the 

political 
attitudes 
of 
many 

citizens in 2008 included a 
wariness and distrust of Wall 
Street and large investment 
corporations. 

Some of the students present 

said they respected the tenacity 
with which Ball analyzed the 
numbers behind a potential 
Lehman 
rescue. 
Engineering 

freshman Aniket Wankhede said 
he agreed with Ball’s argument.

“He talked more about the 

inner workings of the Fed with 
respect to the Lehman crisis,” he 
said. “And the discussion about 
the investigation that ensued 
was very interesting. More than 
political were the economical 
implications and everything that 
happened afterward.”

Shomik Ghosh, a Law School 

student, said he approached 
Ball’s 
speech 
analytically. 

While he said he thought Ball’s 
approach 
was 
original 
and 

interesting, he also noted that 
many approaches to the Lehman 
bankruptcy puzzle exist.

“I think Ball presents a novel 

hypothesis that this decision may 
have been far more volitional 
and consequential than even 
the Federal Reserve may have 
known,” Ghosh said. “But in 
Lehman there was an actor that 
possibly misrepresented its own 
holdings and has engaged in 
really risky financial behavior. 
I think if he accounted for how 
Lehman might’ve been a bad 
actor, a separate angle may be 
that the feds had concern over 
whether saving them would’ve 
perpetuated 
what 
you 
may 

consider a disease in the system.”

LEHMAN
From Page 1 

In particular, Brader said 

key 
constituencies 
of 
the 

Republican 
and 
Democratic 

parties turned out in fewer 
numbers, 
which 
for 
him 

demonstrated the inaccuracy 
within projected voter models.

Following with the theme 

of partisan politics, panelists 
Charles 
Shipan 
and 
Jenna 

Bednar, professors of political 
science, highlighted possible 
consequences of a Republican 
president 
and 
Republican 

Congress.

Shipan said there was large 

potential for intense debate 
within Congress regarding the 
repeal and replacement of the 
Affordable Care Act. Bednar 
said the states could experience 
decreased autonomy that would 
affect issues such as education, 
health care and gun control 
under a unified Congress and 
presidency.

Political Science Prof. Mark 

Tessler also posed concerns 
about a potential departure 
from 
current 
U.S. 
policies 

toward the Middle East under 
a Trump presidency. Trump 
has 
called 
for 
increased 

immigration 
laws 
over 
the 

course of the campaign and has 
used anti-Islam rhetoric.

“It’d certainly be disturbing 

if the registration of American 
Muslims became a reality as 
Trump has discussed,” Tessler 
said. “And, what would be the 
larger implications for anti-
Americanism in the Middle 
East from such action?”

While there were no definite 

answers about the outcome 
of the election presented at 
Monday’s 
event, 
Political 

Science 
Prof. 
Nicholas 

Valentino showed data from his 
research that concluded gender 
attitudes and the emotional 
responses 
of 
voters 
may 

have contributed to Trump’s 
election.

“It’s 
not 
just 
the 

predispositions of voters that 
matter, it’s also about the 
emotional state of the public 
and anger as seen more in 
Republicans seemed to be much 
more mobilizing in the public 
than the fear that dominated 
the Democrats,” Valentino said.

Rackham 
student 

Emmamarie Haasl, a member of 
the audience, said she found the 
panel beneficial in processing 
the results of the election and 
considering the spectrum of 
political views.

“I think this was helpful in 

trying to get into the minds 
of voters and where they’re 
coming from in a more clinical 
way,” Haasl said.

LSA 
sophomore 
Dominic 

Valentino, 
son 
of 
panelist 

Nicholas Valentino, and LSA 
senior 
Lalitha 
Ramaswamy 

said they were disappointed 
at the lack of events initiating 
dialogue between students on 
opposite sides of the aisle.

“I was hoping for more of a 

discussion about how people 
felt about the election and 
people that disagreed with 
what was said today because 
I think that would be more 
productive 
for 
the 
campus 

climate,” Valentino said.

Ramaswamy 
agreed 
with 

Valentino 
and 
compared 

the structure of the panel to 
discussions sponsored by LSA.

“I think panels like this can 

help in understanding multiple 
perspectives, but I think more 
dialogue is necessary at this 
point,” she said. “The same 
people show up to these events 
and the same ideas are recycled, 
so using faculty to mediate 
student discussions could be 
more beneficial.”

ELECTION
From Page 1 

ECONOMIST
From Page 1

who coined the term “alt-right,” 
a 
movement 
that 
promotes 

white supremacy and racism. 
Spencer told The Washington 
Post he would visit campus, 
but University spokeswoman 
Kim Broekhuizen said in an 
email statement Sunday the 
University was not aware of 
any.

David 
Potter, 
an 
LSA 

representative to SACUA, said it 
is important for the University 
to be prepared.

“Maybe 
we 
should 
start 

thinking about coordinating 
with other groups on campus 
so that when we start getting 
people like Spencer showing up 
there is a coherent response,” 
Potter said. “We cannot wait 
until after he is already here.”

Engineering prof. Michael 

Atzmon, 
an 
Engineering 

representative to SACUA, noted 
instances of previous visits by 
similar individuals.

“There 
will 
always 
be 

violence in a case like that,” 
Atzmon 
said. 
“I 
remember 

when the KKK came to Ann 
Arbor.”

Kevin Hegarty, vice president 

and 
chief 
financial 
officer, 

also spoke at the meeting and 
answered 
faculty 
questions 

about the financial situation of 
the University.

Hegarty began by briefly 

discussing his responsibilities, 
which include the University’s 
finances, 
facilities 
and 

operations 
around 
campus, 

investment of the University’s 
portfolio as well as other 
duties. He said the University 
performed 
well, 
financially, 

this year, noting it’s debt.

“(The University) closed in 

very strong financial shape,” 
Hegarty said. “From a debt 
perspective, we ended the year 
with about $2 or $2.1 billion of 
debt, which I can tell you is not 
by any means overleveraged.”

In response to LSA Rep. 

and 
former 
SACUA 
chair 

Silke-Maria 
Weineck’s 

question regarding the ethical 
considerations of investment of 

University funds, Hegarty said 
profit is the overall objective. 
Many campus activists have 
urged the University to divest 
funds from companies they 
deem as unethical, such as 
those that have businesses in 
Israel or oil and coal companies.

“The board has taken the 

position that gives us the 
guidance as to how they want 
that 
portfolio 
ultimately 

invested,” Hegarty said. “They 
don’t want it to be a political 
football. They want to achieve 
the maximum return that they 
possibly can.”

Weineck responded to his 

answer by saying there is no 
way to invest the University 
portfolio without making a 
political statement.

“I think some people would 

say the very fact that certain 
ethical 
concerns 
are 
being 

handled politically is a political 
act,” Weineck said.

The 
annual 
investment 

report will be released Dec. 8 at 
the Board of Regents meeting, 
according to Hegarty.

SACUA
From Page 2

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

