Scholars and Industry Leaders Honor Albert 'Pete' Kyle
Leading academics, bankers and regulators gathered at the Smith School for a conference honoring the Smith School’s Albert “Pete” Kyle — specifically, the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of Kyle’s seminal 1985 paper “Continuous Auctions and Insider Trading.” Co-sponsored by the Smith School’s Center for Financial Policy and UBS, the conference included discussion of the paper’s influence, tributes to Kyle and scholarly talks. Read more ...
The debate over whether Great Britain should exit the E.U. — to "Brexit" or not to "Brexit"? — is rippling outward from Europe into the world's major financial markets. Proponents of an exit think that Britain can follow the model of Switzerland, negotiating good trade deals with E.U. nations individually. But the Smith School's Albert "Pete" Kyle thinks the the E.U. will be inclined to make things tougher than that for the British. 
Several Republican presidential candidates have endorsed — or said they'd consider — putting America back on the gold standard. Sen. Ted Cruz has been the most outspoken, arguing that pegging the dollar to gold would make monetary decisions less arbitrary than the ones currently made by the Fed. Professional economists, however, overwhelmingly reject the idea that the dollar should be tied to the price of gold. Recently, finance professor Albert "Pete" Kyle, answered questions about some issues raised by this perennial monetary-policy issue. 
Janet Yellen, the Fed chairwoman, has said that raising interest rates before the end of the year is "a live possibility," given the relatively strong performance by the economy. Other Fed governors, however, have said that low levels of inflation mean that a rate hike would be premature. A division over interest-rate policy was also evident in a recent panel discussion among finance experts at the Smith School. 
When the stock market plunged in the first minutes of August 25, did well-intended financial regulations contribute to the volatility? The Dodd-Frank act, passed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, introduced a host of regulations into the financial system. But Smith School executive-in-residence William Longbrake says some scholars worry that one particular regulation, the so-called Volcker rule, may have introduced new uncertainty into the system. 
The Smith School hosted a forum Tuesday on global market volatility, aimed at making sense of the recent tumult in international markets — notably in China, but also spilling over into other regions, including the United States. Finance faculty participants Russ Wermers, Haluk Unal, Albert "Pete" Kyle, Bill Longbrake, Phillip L. Swagel and Steve Heston. share their insights. 
Even before the stock market correction that began on Friday, Smith School professor Albert “Pete” Kyle argued against interest rate hikes in the United States. "Today's plunging stock markets make it even less likely that the Fed will raise interest rates," he said Monday. "The Fed's justification for probably not raising rates will likely be to promote stable economic growth in a benign inflationary environment, not to stabilize the stock market, which they are obviously watching closely." 
High-frequency traders provide a useful service but rig the system when they extract tolls from investors, Smith School professor Albert "Pete" Kyle said this week during a financial regulation conference in Australia. "They are like a troll under a bridge who charges travelers something extra when they cross to the other side," Kyle has said. Debate about high-frequency trading heated up prior to the conference when a U.S. brokerage firm agreed to a record-high fine for allegations related to the practice. 
The Chinese stock market meltdown bears more than a passing resemblance to the U.S. crash of 1929. Many observers have noted the similar scale of the two implosions: The Dow fell by 25 percent in the week of Black Thursday; from June 18 to July 3, the two main Chinese markets fell by 31 percent. But the parallels go beyond scale, according to the Smith School finance professor Albert "Pete" Kyle. From a structural perspective China is at roughly the stage of economic development as the United States was 80-odd years ago, he says. 