Oakland University’s School of Business Administration hosted the 2011 Gorlin Memorial Lecture on Thursday, March 24, in the Banquet Rooms of the Oakland Center.

The Gorlin Memorial Lecture was created in honor of Alice Conner Gorlin, an economics professor at Oakland from 1972 until her death in 1987.

According to the School of Business Administration, Gorlin gained international recognition as a scholar of the Soviet Union.

Her dedication to the citizens of the world led her family and friends to create the Gorlin Lecture series to promote understanding of both international issues and events.

This year the Gorlin Lecture featured a Dennis Weatherstone Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Dr. Carmen M. Reinhart.

Dr. Reinhart was previously a professor of economics and director of the Center for International Economics at the University of Maryland. Prior to teaching, Reinhart was the chief economist and vice president at Bear Sterns.

On Thursday evening, Reinhart discussed how the high levels of public and privately held debt affect both advanced and emerging market economies.

Reinhart said advanced market economies face three main issues: high unemployment, subpar recovery and debt overhangs. She stressed that almost all advanced economies are dealing with high unemployment rates.

“Don’t forget that if we are complaining here as we should with 9 percent unemployment, the unemployment rate in Spain is over 20 percent and the youth unemployment is about 40 percent. It’s an advanced economy problem,” Reinhart said.

She said that emerging market economies must also overcome three main issues: big capital inflows, the avoidance of future indebtedness and high inflation rates.

Debby Balint, a sophomore accounting major said Reinhart discussed many topics that she did not know much about.

“To know how bad advanced economies are really doing and how well emerging economies are doing was kind of shocking,” Balint said.

Reinhart concluded her lecture by emphasizing a long recovery period for the world’s advanced economies.

“I think that as we move forward, the scenario that I want to leave with you is the scenario where we don’t go back to the old normal, which wasn’t normal.  This is not gloom and doom and the end of the world, but it is a much more subdued scenario, in terms of growth, in terms of employment and in terms of deleveraging.  It does not happen quickly,” Reinhart said.