A two-day conference focused on recent developments in theories of money, banking and asset markets was held Nov. 13 and 14 at the Wisconsin School of Business.  Finance Professor Randy Wright has played a key role in bringing to Madison noted experts from around the nation to speak at the conference, which was coordinated by the school’s Puelicher Center for Banking Education.

Presenters included noted figures from academia and government—including officials from the Federal Reserve Banks of New York, Philadelphia, and Atlanta, and from the Bank of Canada. Leading thinkers will share their expertise with UW-Madison faculty and Ph.D. students in business and economics.

Topics included: “Payments and Liquidity Under Moral Hazard” and “Banking: A Mechanism Design Approach.” More than 65 individuals are scheduled to attend.

The event was held in Grainger Hall on the UW-Madison campus. To view a conference schedule, click here.

The essence of the WI-FUR plan is to attach a housing “voucher” to each unemployment check that could be directly applied to a mortgage payment.

The U.S. Treasury, according to top Fed officials, is beginning to concentrate very closely on the effect of unemployment on the housing crisis and foreclosures. There is increasing concern that the foreclosure problem cannot be addressed without providing financial assistance to unemployed homeowners.

Proposals to prevent foreclosures by attaching government housing vouchers to unemployment checks is gaining traction among officials. Recent discussions for relief plans have been along the lines of a foreclosure relief plan proposed by three Wisconsin School of Business real estate professors earlier this year. Read recent USA Today coverage here.

“The Wisconsin Foreclose and Unemployment Relief Plan” (WI-FUR), was developed in the Graaskamp Center for Real Estate by Professors Morris A. Davis, Stephen Malpezzi and François Ortalo-Magné. WI-FUR calls for the rapid expansion of two established programs—unemployment insurance and housing vouchers—to prevent a wave of foreclosures among recently unemployed workers.

“In a nutshell, the WI-FUR plan gives unemployed people a housing voucher to enable them to make their mortgage payment,” says Davis. “It doesn’t require any mortgage modification and it’s temporary in nature. You receive a voucher when you are unemployed and then when you are employed, you stop receiving a voucher.”

Davis says the other foreclosure proposals currently being debated, including the “Making Home Affordable” plan put forward earlier by the Obama Administration, have focused on mortgage modifications—to take a person who has a bad or ill-suited subprime mortgage and convert it to a more appropriate 30- year, fixed rate mortgage.

“Those plans really do to nothing to help the unemployed who have completely sensible mortgages but simply can’t afford to make payments on them,” says Davis. “Our plan is the only plan that we know of, outside of one by the Boston Fed, that helps people make mortgage payments while they are unemployed.”

The essence of the WI-FUR plan is to attach a housing “voucher” to each unemployment check that could be directly applied to a mortgage payment. The amount of the voucher would be based on the Fair Market Rent, which is already computed for each county by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The cost of the WI-FUR plan has been calculated by the faculty members, but would depend on parameters set by policymakers in terms of size of the voucher, number of people eligible, and the length of time an individual could receive the vouchers.

“Right now the U.S. is experiencing the greatest housing crisis in its history since the Great Depression, “ Davis says. “As members of one of the top real estate programs in the country, we felt it was our responsibility to come up with a potential solution for this housing crisis and that’s why we developed a foreclosure relief plan.”

Read details on WI-FUR here

Germany’s “cash-for-clunkers” program, designed to help the country’s beleaguered auto makers, has met with an unexpectedly large response and boosted car sales, according to Mark Browne, professor of risk management at the Wisconsin School of Business.  Browne spoke with SmartMoney on ways the U.S. is becoming more like Europe.

Read the article here.

Morris Davis, assistant professor of real estate and urban land economics at the Wisconsin School of Business, is contributing to the national debate on the best methods to help jobless Americans from defaulting on their mortgages.   

 Read  an article quoting Professor Davis on the impact of housing vouchers here.  

 Read about The Wisconsin Foreclosure and Unemployment Relief Plan (WI-FUR)  here.

Chip Hunter, associate professor of Management and Human Resources, talks with SmartMoney magazine about the economic benefits of a federally mandated minimum wage hike to $7.25/hr, set to go into effect on July 24.

According to think tank estimates, the mandate will increase wages of approximately 4.5 million workers and will raise hourly wages by $1.6 billion per year.

Hunter says the wage hike may have the impact of pumping more money into the economy.

In a recent Investor’s Business Daily article, Professor Mason Carpenter provides tips for managers and employees on ways to deal with stress and be more effective during a down economy.

According to Carpenter, who teaches strategic management and is author of “Managing Effectively Through Tough Times,” managers should take advantage of down time by talking with customers, learning of future trends and creating necessary business solutions.

He says employees should not focus on promotions during bad economic times, but instead should look for ways to manage their own careers by taking courses and obtaining new degrees that will increase their marketability following the recession.

Read more of Professor Carpenter’s suggestions here.

Read a related article by Professor Carpenter on managing in tough times  here.