Apr 20, 2007 -- Henry Kaufman, better known as Dr. Doom to economists, cautioned Yeshiva University graduates about the dangers of runaway credit at an alumni event on Wall Street last month. The Yeshiva University Wall Street Committee and alumnus Daniel Posner ’91Y, a member of the board of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and the Wall Street Committee, hosted the event at the investment firm D.E. Shaw & Co. Fifty alumni and friends—representing firms such as Goldman Sachs, Eton Park Capital Management, and Lindsay Goldberg & Bessemer—attended, including YU trustees Lance L. Hirt, Sender Z. Cohen, and Matthew J. Maryles, and Yeshiva College board member Joel Mael. A staunch advocate of fiduciary responsibility, Henry Kaufman is famous for the accurate and dismal predictions he made during the 1970s and 1980s while he was a chief economic adviser for Salomon Brothers. Now, Kaufman foresees a crisis in the explosion of credit. “Firms and households alike often blur the distinction between liquidity and credit availability. Money matters but credit counts,” he said. Kaufman believes that liquidity used to be more of an “asset-based concept.” Now it is increasingly conflated with credit, which could be very risky in the ever-changing structure of today’s market. Yeshiva President Richard M. Joel also spoke at the reception. He addressed what he believes to be the best investment on Wall Street: Yeshiva students. Following the reception, a group of alumni and friends gathered at Le Marais for dinner, discussing ways to strengthen bonds between alumni and Yeshiva students, such as mentoring and internships. Coverage of the event appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, and The Financial Times. For a gallery of photographs from the event, click here.