New York University’s Institute for Public Knowledge will host a panel discussion, “Growing Our Way Out of Crisis: Private Perspectives on Public Works,” which will consider the merits of the “Build America Bond,” on Wednesday, February 17, 4-6 p.m. at 20 Cooper Square, 5th Floor Conference Room (between 5th and 6th Streets). Subways: 6 (Astor Place); R, W (8th Street). The event comes on the one-year anniversary of the signing of the U.S. American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
New York University’s Institute for Public Knowledge will host a panel discussion, “Growing Our Way Out of Crisis: Private Perspectives on Public Works,” which will consider the merits of the “Build America Bond,” on Wednesday, February 17, 4-6 p.m. at 20 Cooper Square, 5th Floor Conference Room (between 5th and 6th Streets). Subways: 6 (Astor Place); R, W (8th Street). The event comes on the one-year anniversary of the signing of the U.S. American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The U.S. American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or stimulus package, created a new type of bond—the Build America Bond. Widely credited with unfreezing the municipal bond market, over $70 billion worth have been issued to date to finance public works including road, water, K-12, university, and power projects. Alan Krueger, U.S. Treasury Department chief economist and assistant secretary for economic policy, regularly praises the Build America Bond program as “an unsung hero of the economic and financial recovery.” President Obama recently proposed an extension of the successful program which is set to expire at the end of the year.
This panel brings together leading figures from investment banks, rating agencies, and research firms to assess the experience with Build America Bonds to date and also evaluates the proposed amendments to the program. In doing so, panelists will discuss how to rate and finance public works projects in a time of financial crisis. They will also discuss how the Build America Bond program relates to the traditional tax-exempt bond market and also to public-private-partnerships (P3s), and the proposed national infrastructure bank.
The event will include the following: Michael B. Likosky (chair), senior fellow, Institute for Public Knowledge; Matt Fabian, managing director, Municipal Market Advisors; George Friedlander, head, municipal strategy, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney; Bob Kurtter, managing director, U.S. State and Local Government Ratings, Moody’s Investor Service; Craig McKenna, managing director, Morgan Stanley.
The event is free and open to the public (photo ID required for entry). For more information, contact Samuel Carter, assistant director of the Institute for Public Knowledge, at 212.992.9561 or samuel.carter@nyu.edu. Reporters wishing to attend must RSVP to James Devitt, NYU’s Office of Public Affairs, at 212.998.6808 or james.devitt@nyu.edu.