Considering the current financial crisis that has got most of the world knee deep in fiscal mud, the opening of Carleton’s new Centre for Monetary and Financial Economics (CMFE) is quite timely.
 
The centre, which opened on June 5, was set up to address the need for improved knowledge in the field of financial and monetary economics, according to the CMFE proposal.
 
The centre will bring a stronger knowledge base to financial and monetary economic theory, better equipping policy makers to address “recent problems like the U.S.-sub-prime-mortgage-induced financial crisis and the upward trend in real energy prices.”
 
Ted Jackson, associate dean of graduate studies for the Faculty of Public Affairs, originated the idea after an influx of proposals for research grants in the area of financial economics, said Charles Freedman one of the co-chairs of the Centre.
 
Jackson fleshed out the idea with Keir Armstrong, dean of the Carleton’s economics department. Freedman and J. Stephen Ferris, a professor of economics, are heading the centre.
 
Carleton’s CMFE is the first of its kind in Canada, with similar centres located mainly in Europe. 
 
Freedman says that he also hopes that the centre will be able to attract graduate students.
 
“Over time, we hope that the activities of the centre will attract students interested in the areas of monetary and financial economics to do their graduate work at Carleton University,” he says.
 
Essentially, the centre’s research associates say they hope that the CMFE will help to train graduate students on how to do research in the area of monetary and financial economics.
 
The CMFE also intends to hold events and conferences to expose research findings and involve policy makers.
 
At the CMFE formal launch, the theme of the centre’s research was established. The launch featured a talk by Larry Meyer, a former member of the Federal Reserve, entitled “The Great Global Recession: How it happened and what can be done about it.”
 
Freedman says that the centre will continue to promote this kind of policy-oriented research.

“We are currently planning our first major conference for the spring of next year and it will address some of the monetary, fiscal and financial sector reform issues that have arisen during the crisis.”