Heller Dean Lisa Lynch moderates Ford Hall Forum discussion Thursday

Panel to discuss credit, debt, and the U.S. economy at Suffolk University

Heller Dean Lisa Lynch

We are a nation of debtors. How have our borrowing habits helped to build our economy and how have they weakened it? What does this mean for our future as a nation?

The Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University will present a free public lecture entitled, "The End (or a New Beginning?) for the American Dream: Credit, Debt, and the U.S. Economy," moderated by labor economist Lisa Lynch, Dean of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University.

Wellesley College economist Karl Case and William Apgar, Senior Scholar at Harvard University, are discussants. The forum will be held Thursday, March 26, at 6:30-8:00 pm. and will be followed by an open discussion. Admission is free and open to all. C. Walsh Theatre, Suffolk University, 55 Temple Street, Boston, MA. Wheelchair accessible and conveniently located near the Park Street stop on the MBTA. For more information, call the Ford Hall Forum at 617-557-2007 or visit www.fordhallforum.org.

Background information:

William C. Apgar has served in various positions at Harvard University for over twenty-five years. Currently he is a Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and a Senior Scholar at Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies. From 1997 to 2001, Apgar took a leave of absence from Harvard and served as the Assistant Secretary of Housing at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

At the Kennedy School, he teaches courses on urban policy and serves as faculty chair of the Senior Executive Program in State and Local Government. His research interests are in housing, community and economic development, as well as housing finance and capital markets. At the Joint Center, he leads the Credit, Capital, and Communities Project, an ongoing evaluation of the impact of the changing structure of the mortgage banking industry on efforts to expand access to affordable homeownership and rental housing opportunities. He also coordinates the Joint Center's research on home remodeling activity and is one of the principal authors of the Centers bi-annual report on Improving America's Housing. Active in community affairs, he is a founding member of the board of Preservation of Affordable Housing, Inc. (POAH), a nonprofit organization that acquires, rehabilitates, owns, and manages housing affordable to low- and moderate-income households.

Apgar graduated from Williams College and holds a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.

[Source: http://www.jchs.harvard.edu/people/william_apgar.html]

Karl E. Case is the Katharine Coman and A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Economics at Wellesley College where he has taught for over 30 years.

He is also a founding partner in the real estate research firm of Fiserv Case Shiller Weiss, Inc. and serves as a member of the Boards of Directors of the Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corporation (MGIC) and the Depositors Insurance Fund of Massachusetts; The S&P Case Shiller Indexes are the most widely accepted measure of home prices in the U.S., and they serve as the basis for futures and options trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. He is a member of the S&P Index Advisory Committee, the Academic Advisory Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and the Board of Advisors of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston at Harvard University.

Professor Case received his B.A. from Miami University in 1968, spent three years on active duty in the Army and received his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 1976.

Professor Case's research has been in the areas of real estate, housing, and public finance. He is author or coauthor of five books including Principles of Economics, Economics and Tax Policy and Property Taxation: The Need for Reform and has published numerous articles in professional journals. Principles of Economics, a basic text coauthored with Ray C. Fair and Sharon Oster, is in its ninth edition and has been adopted at more than 500 colleges and universities.

[Source: http://www.wellesley.edu/PublicAffairs/Profile/af/kcase.html]

Lisa M. Lynch is Dean and Professor of Economics at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University. From 1995-1997 she was the Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Labor and she has been a faculty member at Tufts University, M.I.T., The Ohio State University, and the University of Bristol. She is currently Chair of the Board of Directors of the Boston Federal Reserve Bank and member of the Governor's Council of Economic Advisors for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Economic Policy Institute, and IZA in Bonn, Germany. She has published extensively on issues such as the impact of technological change and organizational innovation (especially training) on productivity and wages, the determinants of youth unemployment, and the school to work transition. Dean Lynch graduated from Wellesley College and received her M.Sc. and Ph.D. in economics from the London School of Economics.

[Source: http://heller.brandeis.edu/faculty/guide.php?emplid=571c04c54617d082d8a95799454aac572911f270]

The Ford Hall Forum is the nation's oldest free public lecture series. The Forum promotes freedom of speech and fosters an informed and effective citizenry through the public presentation of lectures, debates, and discussions. Its events illuminate the key issues facing our society by bringing to its podium knowledgeable and thought-provoking speakers, including some of the most controversial opinion leaders of our times. These speakers are presented in person, for free, and in settings, which facilitate frank and open debate.

The Forum began in 1908 as a series of Sunday evening public meetings held at the Ford Hall, which once stood on Beacon Hill in Boston. While the original building no longer exists, the public conversations have continued throughout the Greater Boston area with the generous support of foundations, corporations, academic institutions, and individuals. As the Forum marks its 100th Anniversary, it is embarking on a new partnership with the Suffolk University College of Arts and Sciences. Suffolk is now housing the Forum's administrative offices just a block away from where the original Ford Hall once stood.

Ford Hall Forum programs are made possible through the generous contributions from individual members as well as corporations and foundations, including The Boston Foundation, The Boston Public Library, Citizens Bank, Boston Private Bank &Trust Company, CBT Architects, The Fred and Marty Corneel Fund, Fidelity Investments, Helen Rees Literary Agency, Houghton Chemical Corporation, Jackson & Company, Levine, Katz, Nannis + Solomon, PC, The Lowell Institute, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Nellie Mae Education Foundation, The Old South Meeting House, The Pfizer Foundation, Plymouth Rock Assurance Corporation, Prince, Lobel, Glovksy, and Tye, LLP, The WAND Education Foundation, WBUR, WGBH, William Gallagher Associates.

For more information on the Ford Hall Forum, contact Director Alex Minier, 617-557-2007, alex@fordhallforum.org or visit www.fordhallforum.org.