Leading economist Paul A. McCulley has joined Cornell Law School as both a senior fellow in financial macroeconomics and an adjunct professor of law. McCulley will work within the Clarke Program on the Law and Regulation of Financial Institutions and Markets, part of the Jack G. Clarke Business Law Institute.

Paul A. McCulley

McCulley retired in 2015 from the Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO), where he was chief economist and managing director, serving as a member of the firm’s Investment Committee and authoring the publication, Macro Perspectives. McCulley had previously retired from PIMCO in 2010 after a decade as managing director and portfolio manager. He had also headed the firm’s Liquidity and Funding Desk, led its Cyclical Economic Forum, and founded and authored the research publication Global Central Bank Focus.

During his years in retirement from PIMCO, McCulley was chair of the Global Society of Fellows at the Global Interdependence Center housed at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Earlier in his career, he was chief economist for the Americas at UBS, where he was named to six seats on the Institutional Investor All-America fixed-income research team. He holds an MBA from Columbia Graduate School of Business and a B.A. from Grinnell College in Iowa.

Known in recent years for coining such ubiquitous financial terms of art as “the Shadow Banking System” and “Minsky Moment,” McCulley is a frequent commentator on financial news and business programs, including CNBC’s Squawk Box and Bloomberg Business. His scholarly work, which Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman has described as “magisterial,” is also regularly featured in periodicals of record including the Financial Times, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

Robert Hockett, Edward Cornell Professor of Law and co-director of the Clarke Program on the Law and Regulation of Financial Institutions and Markets, says that “with the coming of Paul McCulley to Cornell, two great ‘brands’ in the field of macro-informed finance and its regulation join forces. The combination of practical knowledge and theoretic sophistication now available at Cornell will be unsurpassed.”

In this new partnership, McCulley and Hockett, along with Saule Omarova, professor of law and the program’s other co-director, will work closely in conducting research and producing scholarship on global financial and monetary matters, with a particular emphasis on regulatory and central bank policies. Professors Hockett and McCulley are also offering a new course at the Law School commencing this fall semester: Law, Money, and Financial Macrodynamics. McCulley will continue to speak to a variety of audiences around the world, as well as lead the efforts of his personal charitable foundation, Morgan le Fay Dreams.

Of his new affiliation, Mr. McCulley said, “In retirement from active investment management, my professional interest is Interdisciplinary Macro: melding economics, finance, the law, and the study of human behavior. My passion is better public policy, grounded in social justice. Cornell University offers a fertile environment for continuing this path. I look forward to collaborating with many colleagues and students, and especially with Professor Hockett, a like mind and kindred spirit.”