Kathryn C. Lavelle, Ph.D. – Ellen and Dixon Long Professor in World Affairs at Case Western Reserve University

Dear Colleagues:

Happy New Year!

I hope every recipient of these newsletters has had a safe, happy, and rejuvenating break for the holidays. The new year raises some obvious questions for public affairs discussion: namely, what the Trump Administration, or unified Republican control of the government, will mean for every issue the federal government touches.

Therefore we have speakers scheduled to address a number of those issues. But we also will look at some major issues that have their own dynamics or difficulties, separate from what any government does – such as developments within the health care world. And we will look beyond the U.S. to other countries that face their own challenges.

I look forward to lots of good discussions. And I am especially glad that we can begin the semester with Professor Lavelle addressing one of the most important issues about the new government – namely, what it is likely to do to the policies designed to stabilize the financial services sector and prevent a recurrence of the systemic crash that occurred in 2008.

The 2016 Republican party platform proclaims that the 2010 “Dodd-Frank” financial services legislation was “an excuse to establish unprecedented government control over the nation’s financial markets… by creating new unaccountable bureaucracies.” It blames the law for a shrinking number of community banks, though no change in trend was associated with the law. It especially condemns the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as, “deliberately designed to be a rogue agency” with a Director having “dictatorial powers unique in the American Republic.” It also declares that “no financial institution is too big to fail” and legislation should ensure any firm’s problems “can be resolved through the Bankruptcy Code.” The platform goes on to promise “legislation that brings transparency and accountability to the Federal Reserve,” including “an annual audit of the Federal Reserve’s activities… so that its decisions are based on sound economic principles and sound money rather than political pressures for easy money and loose credit.”

With President Trump’s inauguration, will this agenda be enacted? If not, what may happen instead? Join us as Professor Lavelle, author of Money and Banks in the American Political System (Cambridge University Press, 2013) discusses prospects and their possible results for the financial system

All best regards,
Joe White
Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies 

About Our Guest

Dr. Kathryn C. Lavelle is currently working on projects related to the domestic implementation of international financial agreements, such as the Basel Agreements, and international contributions to US law, such as the Volcker Rule. She recently completed a book project on the American governing institutions that formulate financial policy titled Money and Banks in the American Political System, released by Cambridge University Press. She derived the analytical framework for this and her other recent book on Congress and the IMF and World Bank from her experience working as a Congressional fellow on the staff of the House Committee on Financial Services for Chairman Barney Frank. Since that time, she has used extensive archival evidence and interviews to provide additional evidence for the policy process in the domestic and international arenas.

Her other recent book is a scholarly monograph Legislating International Organization: The US Congress, the IMF, and the World Bank (Oxford University Press, 2011), which explores the intersection of national and international politics in the American legislature with respect to the Bretton Woods institutions from their origins to the present. Her first book, The Politics of Equity Finance in Emerging Markets (Oxford University Press, 2004), analyzed the historical and political processes that led to the ownership structures of large firms in middle and low-income countries. She has published articles, book reviews, and chapters appearing in International Studies Quarterly, Perspectives on Politics, International Organization, Review of International Organizations, The Journal of Modern African Studies, Third World Quarterly, Review of International Political Economy, International Journal of Political Economy, International Studies Review, Journal of International Affairs, and The Columbia Journal of World Business.

Where We Meet

The Friday Public Affairs Lunch convenes each Friday when classes are in session, from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Our programs are open to all and no registration is required. We usually meet in the Dampeer Room of Kelvin Smith Library. The Dampeer Room is on the second floor of the library. If you get off the elevators, turn right, pass the first bank of tables, and turn right again. Occasionally we need to use a different room; that will always be announced in the weekly e-mails.

Parking Possibilities

The most convenient parking is the lot underneath Severance Hall. We regret that it is not free. From that lot there is an elevator up to street level (labeled as for the Thwing Center); it is less than 50 yards from that exit to the library entrance. You can get from the Severance garage to the library without going outside. Near the entry gates – just to the right if you were driving out – there is a door into a corridor. Walk down the corridor and there will be another door. Beyond that door you’ll find the entrance to an elevator which goes up to an entrance right inside the doors to Kelvin Smith Library.

Schedule of Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:

January 27: The Generalist Function in the Evolving Health Care System. With Kurt Stange M.D., Ph.D., Distinguished University Professor and Editor, Annals of Family Medicine.***Alternate Location: Guilford House, First Floor Lounge***

February 3: Democracy and Demagogues: Lessons from Ancient Greece and Rome. With Rachel Sternberg, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Classics, and Timothy Wutrich, Ph.D., Senior Instructor of Classics.

February 10: Immigration Policy and the Trump Administration. With David Wolfe Leopold J.D., Past President, American Immigration Lawyers Association.

February 17: The New Health Education Campus and the Future of Health Care. With James Young M.D., Executive Dean, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University.

February 24: Challenges Facing the U.S. Intelligence Community. With Vincent E. McHale, Ph.D., Marcus A. Hanna Emeritus Professor of Political Science.

March 3: Staffing and Organizing the Trump Presidency. With David B. Cohen, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science, University of Akron.

March 10: Nuclear Weapons. With William J. Fickinger, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Physics.

March 17: No program, Spring Break.

March 24: Energy Storage: A Key to Sustainability. With Daniel A. Scherson, Ph.D., Frank Hovorka Professor of Chemistry and Director, Ernest B. Yeager Center for Electrochemical Sciences.

March 31: Program to be Determined

April 7: Merkel’s Challenge: Managing Trump, Putin, and a Million Syrians. With Mark K. Cassell, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science, Kent State University.

April 14: Brazil’s Political Crises. With Juscelino F. Colares, Ph.D., Schott-Van den Eyden Professor of Business Law and Associate Director, Frederick K. Cox International Law Center.

April 21: Program to be Determined

April 28: Putin’s Russia. With Kelly M. McMann, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Political Science and Director, International Studies Program.