Staten to advise federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Mike Staten isn’t exaggerating when he mentions his lifetime of knowledge about consumer finance issues in the United States.

As a Ph.D. student and economics professor, Staten witnessed the “stagflation” period of the late 1970s, the “Black Monday” stock market crash of 1987, the dotcom bubble/burst era of the late 1990s, and the subprime mortgage crisis and recession in 2007-08, and studied their effects on individuals and families.

Staten, Bart Cardon Associate Dean for Career and Academic Services in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, has been appointed to a two-year term on the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Academic Research Council, where he will use his depth of experience to advise the CFPB on what consumer finance questions it should be researching as it regulates the consumer financial services industry.

Staten will be one of seven members of the Council, joining research faculty from Indiana University, the University of Michigan, Cornell University, George Washington University, Mississippi State University, and George Mason University.

“I’m honored to have been appointed to the Committee at this stage of my career,” Staten said. “I view this as a capstone experience that allows me to reach back over almost 40 years of work in the field to provide them a long perspective on the industry and the effects of both regulation of products and consumer education.”

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