I am privileged to have the opportunity to travel to Palo Alto next week alongside my senior colleague Prof. Todd Zywicki to participate in a conference on The Constitution in the Financial Crisis organized by the Stanford Constitutional Law Center. I will in large part be discussing my work in this area, including Treasury Inc.: How the Bailout Reshapes Corporate Theory and Practice as well as The Bailout Through A Public Choice Lens: Government-Controlled Corporations As A Mechanism for Rent Transfer. More details on how to confirm registration are available here, and also below:
About the Event: Leading scholars in law, economic history, and monetary policy will discuss the constitutional questions that have been raised by the financial crisis and the government response. Panels will consider the government’s role as shareholder and its implications for corporate governance and for bankruptcy, the ability of the executive branch to respond to a crisis, the place of the Federal Reserve in our constitutional system; and, cutting across many of these subject areas, the question of discretion.
The conference will feature the following speakers:
Thursday, November 11
Welcome and Introductory Remarks by Michael W. McConnell, Stanford
The Executive in Crisis: Constitutional Capabilities
· Moderator : Hon. Carlos Bea, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
· David Barron, Harvard
· Mariano-Florentino Cuèllar, Stanford
· Gillian Metzger, Columbia
· Saikrishna Prakash, Virginia
Bankruptcy and the Rule of Law
· Moderator: Hon. William Fletcher, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
· Marcus Cole, Stanford
· Stephen Lubben, Seton Hall
· David Skeel, Penn
· Todd Zywicki, George Mason
Friday, November 12
The Federal Reserve in Our Constitutional System
· Moderator: Larry Kramer, Stanford
· Allan Meltzer, Carnegie Mellon
· John Taylor, Stanford
· Michael W. McConnell, Stanford
· John Steele Gordon, Author
The Government as Shareholder: The Implications for Corporate Governance
· Moderator: Joseph Grundfest, Stanford
· Jonathan Macey, Yale
· Edward Rock, Penn
· Lynn Stout, UCLA
· J.W. Verret, George Mason
Rules and Standards Revisited: Discretion in the Financial Crisis
· Moderator: Jane Schacter, Stanford
· Kenneth Anderson, American
· Louis Kaplow, Harvard
· Eric Posner, Chicago
· Kenneth Scott, Stanford
Concluding Remarks by Michael W. McConnell, Stanford