Gorlin Lecture to focus on global nature of economic crisis

By Claudette Zolkowski, contributing writer

Internationally recognized expert on the world economy and international finance, Michael Mussa, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, will deliver Oakland University’s 2009 Alice Gorlin Memorial Lecture at 3 p.m. Thursday, April 2, in Elliott Hall 242.

Prior to joining the Peterson Institute – a nonpartisan research institution in Washington D.C. devoted to the study of international economic policy -- in 2001, Mussa served as Economic Counselor and Director of the Department of Research at the International Monetary Fund. There he advised the management of the fund and the fund's executive board on broad issues of economic policy and analyzed ongoing developments in the world economy.

Mussa also served as a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, member of the faculty of the Graduate School of Business of the University of Chicago and served on the faculty of the Department of Economics at the University of Rochester. He also was a visiting faculty member at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, the London School of Economics, and the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland.

His main areas of research are international economics, macroeconomics, monetary economics and municipal finance. He has been published widely in these fields in professional journals and research volumes. Most recently, he is author of "Argentina and the Fund: From Triumph to Tragedy" (2002) and editor of "C. Fred Bergsten and the World Economy" (2006).

The Gorlin Lecture was established in honor of former Professor of Economics Alice Conner Gorlin, who taught at OU from 1972 until her death in 1987. She gained international recognition as a scholar of the Soviet economy. Gorlin’s dedication to the role of human beings as citizens of the world led her friends to sponsor this lecture series to promote understanding of international issues and events.

The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information or to request special accommodations for persons with disabilities, contact Addington Coppin, chair of OU’s department of economics, at (248) 370-3541 or coppin@oakland.edu.