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Professor Partnoy Reacts to Financial Crisis Report: Congress Should Try Again

SAN DIEGO (January 29, 2011)— University of San Diego School of Law Professor Frank Partnoy's opinion piece titled "Washington's Financial Disaster" was published today by the New York Times. In it, Partnoy explains why the Financial Crisis Inquiry Report released on January 27 is contradictory and calls for Congress to try again:

The long-awaited Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission report, finally published on Thursday, was supposed to be the economic equivalent of the 9/11 commission report. But instead of a lucid narrative explaining what happened when the economy imploded in 2008, why, and who was to blame, the report is a confusing and contradictory mess, part rehash, part mishmash, as impenetrable as the collateralized debt obligations at the core of the crisis.

Read Partnoy's entire New York Times opinion piece.

Professor Partnoy teaches and writes in the areas of corporate law, corporate finance and financial market regulation at the University of San Diego School of Law. He is also the director of the school's Center for Corporate and Securities Law. His most recent book, The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, The Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals, is about the 1920s markets and Ivar Kreuger, who many consider the father of modern financial schemes, and was a finalist for the Financial Times-Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year in 2009. His other publications include Infectious Greed: How Deceit and Risk Corrupted the Financial Markets (Henry Holt), F.I.A.S.C.O.: Blood in the Water on Wall Street (W.W. Norton) and more than 20 articles on various topics related to financial market regulation. Before joining the USD faculty in 1997, Partnoy worked as an investment banker at CS First Boston and Morgan Stanley in New York, and as an attorney at Covington and Burling in Washington, D.C. He was co-recipient of the 1999 Thorsnes Prize for Excellence in Teaching and is the 2004 Herzog Endowed Scholar.

About the Center for Corporate and Securities Law at USD School of Law
The Center for Corporate and Securities Law helps enrich scholarly and popular debate on a wide range of issues related to corporate governance, financial regulation and other business law topics. The center hosts academic and public conferences, publishes papers and discussions from those conferences, provides point-of-contact for popular and business media on issues of broad public interest, supports faculty and student research, and sponsors public lectures.

About the University of San Diego School of Law
The University of San Diego School of Law is a center of academic excellence focused on preparing its students for legal practice in the new century. One of the most selective law schools in the country, the School of Law’s nationally recognized faculty create a demanding, yet welcoming environment that emphasizes individualized education. USD law school graduates consistently score higher than the state average on the California Bar Exam and go on to practice law throughout the country and abroad, forming an influential network of alumni. The USD School of Law is one of only 81 law schools in the country to have a chapter of the Order of the Coif, the most distinguished rank of American law schools. The school is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools. Founded in 1954, the law school is part of the University of San Diego, a private, nonprofit, independent, Roman Catholic university chartered in 1949.

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