November 12, 2010
This lecture will highlight the governmental failures that led directly to the present Great Recession. It will assess the effectiveness of Executive Branch and Congressional responses to these failures, including the TARP program and various stimulus measures, as well as the recent overhaul of market regulation within the Dodd Frank bill. An analysis of how the present economic crisis and the governmental responses thereto impact the ability of the country to respond to manmade (e.g. terrorism) and natural (e.g. H1N1 pandemic and BP oil spill) disasters that cause or have the potential to cause serious national catastrophes.
Michael Greenberger is a professor at the University of Maryland School of Law and the Founder and Director of the University of Maryland Center for Health and Homeland Security. Professor Greenberger currently serves as the Chair of the Maryland Governor's Emergency Management Advisory Council (GEMAC); and as a member of the Advisory Committee of the Standing Committee on Law and National Security by appointment of the President of the American Bar Association. In 1999, Professor Greenberger began service as Counselor to the United States Attorney General, and then became the Justice Department's Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General. Within his portfolio of responsibilities were several counterterrorism projects, including organizing a nationwide counterterrorism war game ("TOPOFF I"). In 1997, Professor Greenberger became the Director of the Division of Trading and Markets at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, where he was responsible for supervising exchange traded futures and derivatives. Professor Greenberger has frequently been asked to testify before Congressional committees and regulatory bodies on issues pertaining to financial market regulation, and he has appeared in the national and international media numerous times to discuss the economic meltdown. He teaches a course on financial market regulation at the law school. Prior to entering government service, Professor Greenberger was a partner for over 20 years in the Washington, D.C. law firm of Shea & Gardner, where he served as lead litigation counsel before courts of law nationwide, including the United States Supreme Court. Professor Greenberger is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Lafayette College and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was Editor in Chief of the Law Review.