Wall Street Journal reporter Justin Lahart has coined the term “richcession” to explain what might happen should a recession occur this year. According to him, the well-heeled would take a bigger hit than usual, even if we manage to narrowly escape an economic downturn.

A study of the world’s top researchers identifies 25 from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business in the top 2% of the most-cited scholars and scientists worldwide.

Economic arguments for and against student loan forgiveness have streamed through the media since President Biden last week announced a three-part plan to cancel student debt for low- to middle-income borrowers. In responses to Brain Trust, Smith experts Michael Faulkender and David Kass give differing perspectives.

Consumers are feeling the effects of the highest inflation rates in decades, particularly on essentials like groceries and gas, while many big companies are reporting record profits. That dichotomy is angering a lot of Americans and public officials. But corporate greed isn’t to blame for inflation, says Maryland Smith finance professor Michael Faulkender.

The consumer price index’s 7.9 percent increase over the past year “is excessive inflation” and “primarily the result of unnecessary fiscal stimulus ($1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act)” that has been “bolstered by excessively accommodative monetary policy by the Federal Reserve,” said Maryland Smith’s Michael Faulkender in opening remarks to lawmakers in an April 5, 2022, Senate Budget Committee hearing titled “Corporate Profits are Soaring as Prices Rise: Are Corporate Greed and

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?”

With Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine intensifying, the United States and several key allies moved to cut Russia off from much of the global financial system – barring select Russian banks from participating the SWIFT global finance network.

Traditional data sources couldn’t capture the whole economic picture during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading some to look to less-analyzed data sources – OpenTable reservations, TSA screenings, weekly credit-card transactions. Maryland Smith’s Michael Faulkender, speaking recently to the Economist, discussed those new data sources and their new prevalence.

The Biden administration's proposed $2 trillion infrastructure bill is expected to be funded in part by an increased corporate tax rate. But changes of that magnitude always carry consequences, says Maryland Smith's Michael Faulkender, and the impact of these policies could be felt years down the road.

Michael Faulkender’s career in finance has been a pursuit of answers to age-old questions: Why are economic decisions made the way they are and how we can make them better? The longtime Maryland Smith finance professor has dedicated his educational and professional career to searching for those answers.