UM: Economy

Crain’s Detroit Business quotes two UM experts for an article on the impact of AIG’s federal bailout. Don Grimes, a researcher with UM’s Institute for Research Labor and Industrial Relations: “The fundamental problem was the credit market was way too loose. There were too many crazy loans, and anybody who wanted a credit card could get one. The auto industry went to leasing arrangements to make sure people had enough money to buy cars. They aren’t doing that anymore.” Michael Barr, a UM law professor, has this to say: “The administration’s failure over the last eight years to provide the necessary regulatory and supervisory oversight of our financial markets, and their failure last year to stem the crisis with a systematic initiative to restructure troubled mortgages on a broad scale, deepened the crisis and left themselves with no choice but to intervene when AIG collapsed.” [Source]