Schooling in New York

NYU

On June 16th, students woke up in the Big Apple and started a week’s study at New York University’s (NYU) journalism department. There they got a chance to meet Bethany McLean, the award winning financial journalist, famous for uncovering the Enron scandal. She talked about her reporting of current financial scandals, about the process of organizing complicated material and making financial material come alive, as well as her recent work for Vanity Fair covering the downfall of Steven A. Cohen and the SAC hedge fund.

On Tuesday, students met Larry Rubenstein, Capital Markets Managing Counsel for Wells Fargo. As an expert in securitized assets, Larry talked them through the growth of securitized assets in the US, the development of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and how that differs from the European model. He also talked about the housing boom and the current state of both the housing market and the securitized debt markets today in the aftermath of the financial crisis.

The New York Times

The Wall Street Journal

On Wednesday, Kim Ruhl, economics professor at NYU’s Stern Business School provided students with a general view of the US economy, the recovery and budget/political issues with an emphasis on the differences in the political and economic situations in the UK, Europe and the US. In the afternoon, students had the chance to quiz Gerard Baker, editor in chief at The Wall Street Journal, the largest newspaper in the United States which has a circulation of about 2.4 million copies.

The following day, Sean Capperis, a Data Manager and Research Analyst at the Furman Center, lectured them on income inequality in the region. A week of interesting lectures was rounded off by Leslie Wayne, former New York Times business reporter and NYU adjunct, who talked about corporate corruption and the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, its global reach and how businessmen, kleptocrats and government officials are increasingly being caught by it.

 

Marjorie Deane Financial Journalism Foundation

The Marjorie Deane Financial Journalism Foundation was set up by Marjorie Deane, a former Deputy Business Editor of The Economist. Marjorie represented The Economist at the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

She was also behind the start of a new publication, The Economist Financial Report, a fortnightly newsletter that she edited for 13 years. After a long and successful career in financial journalism, Marjorie decided to encourage young people to follow in her footsteps. Her foundation started in 1998 and she was active in its affairs until her death in October 2008.

The formal aims of the Foundation are to advance the education of the public in financial and monetary theory and institutions and financial journalism by providing work experience for students and young people, and to provide financial support, to commission research and to provide vocational training.

John Micklethwait, the editor-in-chief of The Economist and a trustee of the foundation, said about Marjorie:

“Marjorie Deane was passionately interested in journalism and American finance—and she loved New York. …. The foundation has already had (great success) in encouraging people to learn more about financial journalism in Britain.”