Smith Expert to Testify Before Senate Committee

Dean’s Professor of Finance Michael Faulkender at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business will testify tomorrow (11 a.m. Tuesday, April 5, 2022) during a Senate Budget Committee hearing titled “Corporate Profits are Soaring as Prices Rise: Are Corporate Greed and Profiteering Fueling Inflation?”

Faulkender, who served as the Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy and Chief Economist of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, will testify alongside former Labor Secretary Robert Reich and interim Executive Director of the Groundwork Collaborative Lindsay Owens.

He will expand on his argument that “excessive inflation currently harming America’s families is primarily the result of unnecessary fiscal stimulus passed by Congress and implemented by this Administration, bolstered by excessively accommodative monetary policy by the Federal Reserve.” 

In his Treasury role Faulkender advised the secretary on domestic and international issues that impacted the economy. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he assisted in negotiating the CARES Act and was the senior Treasury official who led the implementation of the Paycheck Protection Program. In addition, he chaired the Social Security and Medicare working group that develops the economic and demographic assumptions that are used in the annual Trustees reports and he also chaired the interagency taskforce on Long-Term Care Insurance. 

Formerly the associate dean of master’s programs at Maryland Smith, Faulkender’s research focuses on empirical corporate finance in the areas of capital structure, risk management, corporate liquidity, and executive compensation.  

The hearing will be livestreamed on the Budget Committee’s website. To request a copy of Faulkender’s testimony, email gmuraski@umd.edu.