William D. Cohan, a former Wall Street banker, is coming to Cal State Long Beach to give his professional insight on the economic meltdown Wednesday at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center.
An award-winning author and investigative journalist, Cohan said his speech will be based on his new book, “House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street,” which discusses how the current financial crisis began with the collapse of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers.
“I wrote the book because I wanted to know what caused Bear Stearns to fail in what seemed like a flash of time, and I figured many other people in the country — and the world — would want to know the same thing,” Cohan said in an e-mail.
According to Cohan, the financial crisis was entirely preventable and not the result of some “once-in-a-lifetime tsunami.”
“The crisis occurred because of decisions made over many years by Wall Street bankers and traders, as well as mortgage brokers, home buyers, investors and government officials,” Cohan said.
The Distinguished Speaker Series was founded in 2006 by professor Arthur Levine from the College of Business Administration’s legal studies in business program and Vice President for Student Services Doug Robinson.
“Each year we try to choose a speaker that is an expert on a very important topic, and one who also inspires our students and the audience to become involved, and no issue seems more important than the economic meltdown — it has affected everybody,” Levine said.
According to the CSULB Web site, the mission of the speaker series is to bring accomplished and distinctive speakers to the CSULB campus to give insight and share their views on current critical issues.
The speaker series had approximately 700 attendees during its first two years. This year more people are expected to attend, as the event was moved from the afternoon to the evening.
“We did this to more conveniently serve the members of the community who might want to attend,” Levine said.
Levine said that economics had been a factor in attendance in previous years.
“Ironically, the ticket sales have been impacted by the economic meltdown, the very subject of our speech,” Levine said.
Regardless, Levine said he is sure the event will attract a lot of people this year.
“I know this is the right topic and I know this is the best speaker in America to speak to this topic,” Levine said. “I am a believer.”
He added that they are hoping to fill up the Carpenter Performing Arts Center this year, which seats approximately 1,000 people.
Tickets to the event cost $20 for CSULB students and $30 for faculty, staff and seniors. Proceeds of the event will support CSULB scholarships, specifically to help students who must work to pay for their education. The event will start at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.
This article was modified Nov. 17 at 3:44 p.m. It had incorrectly reported that William D. Cohan said the financial crisis was the result of some “once-in-a-lifetime tsunami.”