2015-16 IGM Year in Review

Letter from the Director During 2015–16, the Initiative on Global Markets (IGM) continued to engage with the public on a wide range of policy issues, drawing on the expertise of many Chicago Booth faculty members along with business leaders and senior policymakers. One way we bring high-quality policy insights to the public is through the Myron Scholes Global Markets Forum: our distinguished speakers series. In 2015–16, the Scholes Forum featured two excellent panel discussions. In one, Chicago Booth faculty members—Anil Kashyap, Stavros Panageas, and Luigi Zingales—discussed alternative views on Greece’s debt crisis. In the other, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and the University of Chicago’s Kevin Murphy debated the outlook for the US economy, as well as policy options for improving growth and boosting the prospects of low-skilled workers. Two other Scholes Forum events featured Chicago Booth faculty. In one, Professor Richard Thaler discussed his latest book, Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics, in a fireside chat moderated by Professor Steven Kaplan. In the other, Professor Brent Neiman discussed what may be driving the global decline in the share of total income that is paid to workers for their labor, as well as the implications. To wrap up the Scholes series, Lord Adair Turner, former chair of the UK Financial Services Authority (2008–13), shared his views on what made the effects of the 2008 financial crisis so deep and lasting. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke visited the IGM in April 2016 for a fireside chat, in which he discussed central banking and the global economy. The IGM also supported a half-dozen conferences in 2015–16 that aligned with our goal of providing evidence- based thought leadership on markets, policies, and institutions. The US Monetary Policy Forum (USMPF) BRIAN BARRY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, IGM CLINICAL PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS, CHICAGO BOOTH