IFTA Advisory Panel Member Leads the Way
to Measuring and Managing Federal Financial Risk

IFTA Advisory Panel member and professor of Finance at the Kellogg School, Deborah Lucas, organized a very successful and informative conference entitled, “Measuring and Managing Federal Financial Risk”.

The Conference, held on February 8-9, brought together a diverse group of academics and policymakers, including IFTA members Roger Nelson, Ralf Seiffe, Rick Skiba and Sheila Weinberg, to discuss new findings to improve the measurement and management of federal financial risks. 

Discussions included:
Federal Financial Exposure to Catastrophic Risk
Environmental Assets and Liabilities
Guaranteed vs. Direct Lending: The Case of Student Loans
The Cost of Risk to the Government and Its Implications for Federal Budgeting
Federal Housing Programs
Valuing Government Guarantees
What Can Be Done, What Should Be?
The Market Value of Accrued Social Security Benefits

All of these papers are available online.

The Keynote Speaker was Peter Fisher from BlackRock, whose paper, Bringing Financial Literacy to Washington, hit home with most participants. Unless we can bring financial literacy to Washington, we have no hope of bringing it to our citizens.  His three suggestions: do not focus on one number or one set of numbers—get more information; require “accrual accounting impact statements”; and the need for more program-specific risk and exposure information are available online for more in-depth analysis.

The event was hailed a success, and follow-up conferences are already in the works.