Peter Blair Henry, a UNC alumnus and dean of New York University’s Stern School of Business, spoke to a group of students and adults Thursday about how his personal background has informed his economic opinions.
Henry’s speech focused on his new book “Turnaround: Third World Lessons for First World Growth” in his presentation at the FedEx Global Education Center Thursday evening.
Henry discussed the ways his life experiences shaped the economic worldview outlined in his book. He argued that third world countries that went through debt crises in the 1970s and 1980s recovered by applying the basic principles of discipline, clarity, and truth.
He said first-world countries helped guide the struggling ones through economic hardship.
“What struck me is that we have forgotten all of these lessons and that’s part of the reason why we’re struggling,” he said.
Henry was born in Jamaica and moved to the suburbs of Chicago when he was eight. He received his bachelor’s degree from UNC, where he was a Morehead-Cain Scholar, and then went on to become a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. He later received his PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“I started writing because there’s a story that I wanted to tell about the connections between the third world where I’m from and the first world where I now live,” he said.
Samer Khatib, a senior business and economics major, said he really connected to Henry’s personal story. “My parents are from Jerusalem and that sense of education and hard work and determination is something that really struck me about Mr. Henry,” Khatib said.
The presentation, hosted in the form of a conversation led by UNC alumnus William B. Harrison, Jr., focused on Henry’s new book and on his general economic views and principles.