Kreinin brings energy to econ

Mordechai Kreinin’s bookshelves are decorated with honorary plaques, paddleball trophies and several books that he wrote or helped write, but two shelves are particularly special for Kreinin — the shelves that hold about 40 hardcover black books, each containing a dissertation from graduate students he’s supervised.

With many of his graduate students now professors themselves, Kreinin said these black books mean a lot to his success as an educator.

“It’s rewarding when you get these letters from graduates of yesteryear, ‘oh we’re doing so well, it’s all because of you, blah, blah, blah,’” Kreinin said.

As an economics professor at MSU for more than 50 years, Kreinin has done many other jobs.

He acted as a the president of the International Trade and Finance Association, a consultant for several political institutions such as the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund and has held lecture tours that took him all across the world.

“Just about every summer for 40 years, I was working somewhere else,” he said. “I don’t know if at my age now I’ll have the strength to do all that — it’s the kind of thing you can do at 40, but not at 80.”

Courtney Vader, a human resources junior, is in Kreinin’s Survey of International Economics course and likes that the professor relates the theories he teaches to today’s issues.

“You can just tell that he knows what he’s talking about and he tries to relate it to what’s going on now,” Vader said. “He relates it to newspaper articles and current events, so it’s easy to pay attention to.”

Though he has led an expansive career, one of his favorite stories comes from helping American universities balance their budgets to save tenure faculty jobs.

“In the beginning of the 1980s, the university went through a crisis similar to the one we’re going through now — a big financial crisis,” Kreinin said. “I was very active in that and I worked out a plan to somehow get through the crisis without firing tenure faculty.”

With this experience in his pocket, Kreinin was in high demand by universities across the country to help them with their own financial issues.

He successfully has guided plans for more than 10 other universities — but one in the Northwest proved to be more difficult after the president of the university had already sent out dismissal notices to more than 100 tenure faculty.

“When I came there, I went to see the president (of the university) and I explained to him that firing tenure faculty is not costless,” Kreinin said.

“No. 1, you’re going to get a lot of law suits — (the president) said, ‘I know, I already am getting letters from lawyers.’ And No. 2, nobody is going to want to come here — you won’t be able to hire in the future and you’re going to get kind of a national black eye.”

Kreinin devised a plan that would send the faculty on sabbaticals — allowing professors to leave the university to study what they wanted at half the salary.

“It’s not a punishment — (I’ve) had five sabbaticals and they were the best five years of my life,” Kreinin said.

Though at first it wasn’t well received, the plan eventually was implemented and successfully helped the university overcome a 9 percent deficit.

Kreinin thinks of this consulting project as some of his proudest, or at least story-worthy, moments.

Kreinin’s résumé also accounts for 10 global lecture tours, more than 160 publications and thousands of media appearances — it’s a career that has gained much recognition.

“I’ve always viewed him as a mentor — he gave great advice about how to handle students in and out of the classroom, and also about how to handle my professional career,” economics professor and department chair Carl Davidson said.

In addition to Kreinin’s experience and expertise, Davidson said he always has brought energy to the department.

“(Kreinin has) a tremendous amount of energy and enthusiasm,” Davidson said. “I’ve been here almost 30 years and (Kreinin) hasn’t slowed a beat during that time — I hope I age this well.”

As a professor who has studied the economies of the world for more than half a century, Kreinin remains optimistic about the future of the current economic crisis.

“The thing we can be sure about financial crises: they end.”

However, his time at MSU is another story, since Kreinin said that he enjoys his current schedule and work.

“I like what I do, I like my time allocation,” he said. “So I’m not really thinking that I am going to retire tomorrow, but it depends on health and that’s about it. It’s a year-to-year thing.”