Approximately 90 people came to listen recently as Dr. R. Glenn Hubbard, dean of the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University and聽麻豆原创 College of Business Administration聽alumnus, presented 鈥淓conomic Outlook: The Path Forward.鈥

During his hour-long presentation, Dr. Hubbard discussed the causes of the financial crisis and what to expect in the next year as the economy recovers.

Hubbard acknowledged that there were different schools of thought on why the 鈥淕reat Recession鈥 had occurred, but that he believed it was partially due to a boom in productivity growth during the mid-1990s, a big imbalance in capital markets, and a lenient Federal Reserve policy during the past decade that put 鈥渨ind in the sails of the bubble.鈥

Open Video – 鈥淓conomic Outlook: The Path Forward鈥

Hubbard cautioned that although the economic recovery was well underway, the unemployment rate would take a while to come down. Asked about the policy challenges going forward, Hubbard said that 鈥減roductivity growth remains the clear policy objective for the U.S. economy鈥 and called for greater transparency in the financial system and ending the notion of 鈥渢oo big to fail.鈥

Hubbard served as chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisors from 2001鈥2003 and was a deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department from 1991鈥1993. He is currently the Russell L. Carson Professor of Finance and Economics at Columbia, a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a co-chair of the nonpartisan Committee on Capital Markets Regulation. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 1983 and he graduated summa cum laude from the 麻豆原创 in 1979 with BA and BS degrees in Economics.