Charles Calomiris

Charles William Calomiris(born November 8, 1957) is an American financial policy expert, author, and Director of the Center for Politics, Economics and History atUATX.Previously, he was a professor atColumbia Business School,where he was the Henry Kaufman Professor of Financial Institutions and the Director of Columbia Business School Program for Financial Studies.

Early life, education, and career

Early life and parentage

Born inWashington, D.C.,his father was businessman William Calomiris, who was also born in Washington, D.C., toGreekimmigrant parents and grew up in theCapitol Hillneighborhood.William Calomiris was a former president of theWashington Board of Tradeand founder of the William Calomiris Investment Corp, which led efforts to create housing for low-income and middle-income Washington residents.In addition, he was a banker who served as director of bothLincoln National Bankand Jefferson Federal Savings & Loan, and also as an advisory director ofRiggs National Bank.He also had been board chairman of the Washington Federal Savings Bank before its 1996 sale toFirst Maryland Bancorp.William Calomiris died in 2000, when he was 80 years old.

Education and career

Charles Calomiris received aB.A.in economics fromYale Universityand aPh.D.in economics fromStanford University.Calomiris thereafter served in numerous capacities with organizations addressing economic policy, including serving as a Fellow at theManhattan Institute for Policy Research,a member of theShadow Open Market Committee,co-director of theHoover Institution's Program on Regulation and the Rule of Law, and a Research Associate of theNational Bureau of Economic Research.He has advised government entities as a researcher at theOffice of Financial Researchin theUnited States Department of the Treasury,and as a member of theInternational Financial Institution Advisory Commissionof theUnited States Congress.

Views

Calomiris was critical from the outset of theDodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act,a set of financial regulations passed in response to the 2007-2008 financial crisis. Argued that the law doubles down on "too big to fail" and does not prevent the government from subsidizing mortgage risk, which fueled the crisis.He further cited the law's overly complicated and ambiguously worded provisions, and instead advocated alternative "incentive-robust" solutions, such as "a rule requiring that banks hold cash at the central bank equal to 20% of their assets", and "a minimum uninsured debt requirement for large banks in the form ofsubordinated debt".

In 2018, Calomiris argued in favor ofcapitalism,noting that many predictions made byKarl Marxhave failed to materialize.In a September 2018 conference at Columbia University's Centre on Capitalism and Society, he argued that the improvement of the U.S. economy since 2016 "cannot be reasonably contested".

Religiously, Calomiris is aGreek Orthodox Christian.

Fragile By Design

In 2014, Calomiris coauthored, withStephen Haber,Fragile By Design: The Political Origins of Banking Panics and Scarce Credit. In the book, Calomiris and Haber argue that the problems faced by the banking industry arise from the extensive network of government regulations effectively directing how they do business, including that "geographic restrictions on banking made banks too small to weather regional economic shocks".The book received various accolades, including an American Publishers 2015 Award for best book in Business, Finance and Management, and being named to best books of the year lists by theFinancial TimesandBloomberg Businessweek.

External links

• Columbia Business School faculty page for Charles Calomiris
• Manhattan Institute for Policy Research page for Charles Calomiris
• Hoover Institution page for Charles Calomiris