States Retain Noted Economist to Study Industrial Bank

The Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development and the Nevada Development Authority have retained Dr. James Barth of the Milken Institute and Auburn University to study the industrial banking industry.  The two agencies funded the study to analyze:

•The historic impact of Industrial Banks on banking and consumer activities in this country.

•How Industrial Banks have weathered the current economic crisis and their

• safety and soundness compared to other financial institutions.

•The ability of the Industrial Bank model to serve a safe vehicle to dramatically increase investment of  $1.5 trillion of private capital into the American economy.

Dr. Barth is the Lowder Eminent Scholar in Finance at Auburn University and a Senior Finance Fellow at the Milken Institute. His research focuses on financial institutions and capital markets, both domestic and global, with special emphasis on regulatory issues. He recently served as leader of an international team advising the People’s Bank of China on banking reform and travelled to China, India, Russia and Egypt to lecture on various financial topics for the U.S. State Department. He was recently interviewed about the financial crises by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission and the Congressional Oversight Panel.

An appointee of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, Barth was chief economist of the Office of Thrift Supervision and previously the Federal Home Loan Bank Board. He has also held the positions of professor of economics at George Washington University, associate director of the economics program at the National Science Foundation and Shaw Foundation Professor of Banking and Finance at Nanyang Technological University. He has been a visiting scholar at the U.S. Congressional Budget Office, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the World Bank.

Barth’s expertise in financial institution and capital market issues has led him to testify before the U.S. House and Senate banking committees on several occasions. He has authored more than 200 articles in professional journals and has written and edited several books.  Barth is the co-editor of The Journal of Financial Economic Policy and overseas associate editor of The Chinese Banker. He has been quoted in publications ranging from The New York Times, The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal to Time and Newsweek. In addition, he has appeared on such broadcast programs as “Newshour,” “Good Morning America,” “Moneyline,” Bloomberg News, Fox Business News and National Public Radio.

Barth serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Financial Services Research, Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies, Journal of Economics and Finance and Financial Services Review. He is also included in Who’s Who in Economics: A Biographical Dictionary of Major Economists, 1700 to 1995.