Conference Proceedings Debt, Deficits, and Financial Instability
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Conference Proceedings Levy Economics Institute of Bard College st ANNUAL HYMANP . MINSKYCONFERENCE ONTHESTATEOFTHEUSAND 21WORLDECONOMIES Debt, Deficits, and Financial Instability April 11–12, 2012, New York City A conference organized by the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College with support from the Contents FOREWORD 1 PROGRAM 2 WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION 4 Luis A. Ubiñas Dimitri B. Papadimitriou SPEAKERS Esther L. George 10 Roberto Frenkel 21 Henry Kaufman 31 Andrea Enria 40 Peter Praet 53 Martin J. Gruenberg 64 Cyrus Amir-Mokri 73 SESSIONS 1. Public Debt, Private Debt, and Financial Instability 79 2. Reporting on Financial Crisis and Financial Reform 85 3. Ford–Levy Institute Projects on Financial Reregulation and Improving Governance of the Government Safety Net 89 4. Progress and Implications of Financial Reform Proposals 94 5. Building Eurozone Financial Stability 99 6. Central Bank Independence, Financial Reform, and Financial Stability 103 PARTICIPANTS 108 These proceedings consist of edited transcripts of the speakers’ remarks and summaries of session participants’ presentations. Levy Economics Institute of Bard College Foreword I am delighted to welcome you to the 21st Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference, “Debt, Deficits, and Financial Instability,” organized by the Levy Economics Institute with support from the Ford Foundation. As part of its monetary policy research, the Institute is partnering with the Ford Foundation to examine financial instability and reregulation within the context of Minsky’s path-breaking work on financial crises. This year’s conference addresses the ongoing and far-reaching effects of the global financial crisis, includ- ing the challenge to global growth represented by the eurozone debt crisis, the impact of the credit crunch on the economic and financial markets outlook, the sustainability of the US economic recovery in the absence of support from monetary and fiscal policy, reregulation of the financial system and the design of a new financial architecture, and the larger implications of the debt crisis for US economic policy— and for the international financial and monetary system as a whole. I look forward to seeing you again at future Levy Institute events. Dimitri B. Papadimitriou President, The Levy Economics Institute, and Jerome Levy Professor of Economics, Bard College 1 21st Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference on the State of the US and World Economies Program Wednesday, April 11 9:00–9:30 a.m. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION Luis A. Ubiñas, Ford Foundation Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, Levy Institute 9:30–10:30 a.m. SPEAKER Esther L. George, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City “Looking Ahead: Financial Stability and Microprudential Supervision” 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. SESSION 1 Public Debt, Private Debt, and Financial Instability Moderator: Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, Levy Institute Claudio Borio, Bank for International Settlements Bruce C. N. Greenwald, Columbia University Joseph E. Stiglitz, Columbia University 12:00–1:00 p.m. SPEAKER Roberto Frenkel, Centro de Estudios de Estado y Sociedad (CEDES) “Classifying Crisis in the Financial Globalization Period” 1:00–2:45 p.m. SPEAKER Henry Kaufman, Henry Kaufman & Company, Inc. “In the Aftermath of the Financial Crisis” 2:45–4:15 p.m. SESSION 2 Reporting on Financial Crisis and Financial Reform Moderator: Louis Uchitelle, The New York Times Gillian Tett, Financial Times Yalman Onaran, Bloomberg News; author, Zombie Banks Jeff Madrick, Challenge, Roosevelt Institute, and Bernard Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis, The New School for Social Research 4:30–6:00 p.m. SESSION 3 Ford–Levy Institute Projects on Financial Reregulation and Improving Governance of the Government Safety Net Jan Kregel, Levy Institute and Tallinn Technical University L. Randall Wray, Levy Institute and University of Missouri–Kansas City 6:00 p.m. SPEAKER Andrea Enria, European Banking Authority “Supervisory Policies and Bank Deleveraging: A European Perspective” 2 Levy Economics Institute of Bard College Thursday, April 12 9:00–10:00 a.m. SPEAKER Peter Praet, European Central Bank “Deleveraging, Rebalancing, and Institutional Reforms in the Euro Area” 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. SESSION 4 Progress and Implications of Financial Reform Proposals Moderator: Deborah Solomon, Bloomberg View Christine M. Cumming, Federal Reserve Bank of New York J. Nellie Liang, Office of Financial Stability Policy and Research, Federal Reserve Board Frank Partnoy, University of San Diego 12:00–2:00 p.m. SPEAKER Martin J. Gruenberg, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation “The FDIC’s Role in the Resolution of Systemic Financial Institutions” 2:00–3:00 p.m. SESSION 5 Building Eurozone Financial Stability Moderator: Justin Lahart, The Wall Street Journal Avinash D. Persaud, Intelligence Capital Ltd. Adam Posen, Peterson Institute for International Economics and Monetary Policy Committee, Bank of England Martin Wolf, Financial Times 3:15–4:30 p.m. SESSION 6 Central Bank Independence, Financial Reform, and Financial Stability Moderator: Peter Coy, Bloomberg Businessweek Michael Greenberger, The University of Maryland Bernard Shull, Hunter College and NERA Economic Consulting P. Morgan Ricks, Harvard University 4:30–5:30 p.m. SPEAKER Cyrus Amri-Mokri, US Department of the Treasury “Restoring and Maintaining Trust: Financial Reform Efforts and Lessons Learned from the Crisis” 3 21st Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference on the State of the US and World Economies Welcome and Introduction LUIS A. UBIÑAS President, Ford Foundation DIMITRI B. PAPADIMITRIOU President, Levy Economics Institute Luis A. Ubiñas Dimitri B. Papadimitriou LUIS A. UBIÑAS: It gives me great pleasure to welcome you here today for the 21st Annual Hyman Minsky Conference. This is the third year we’ve had the honor of hosting this event here at Ford, and I have to say, it’s been an astonishing three years. We’ve hosted you through collapsing financial markets, through the deepest recession since the Great Depression, and now through this tepid recovery and a eurozone crisis that seems to unfold in a new and different way every week. What we’ve really done, and what makes this conference most interesting to me, is hosted you during a time when economic questions have shifted from the periphery to the center of the national and global public dinner table dialogue and debate. Who would have thought that a financial crisis filled with com- plex ideas would bring our youth—kids 18, 21—out into the streets in Athens, in London, in Paris and New York, in a way that two Gulf wars and a decade in Afghanistan wouldn’t, in a way that democracy- sapping decisions like Citizens United didn’t. Questions you all deal with every day are now front and center, at the dinner table and on the streets. It must be gratifying. These are important questions: What is the balance between short-term need for economic stimulus in order to drive economic growth, and the long-term burden of high debt levels? How do we set tax policy so that the government can function without beggaring the future, while being fair to those who’ve achieved financial success? What does income inequality mean for this country and our European partners, societies that had been defined and built by the notion of middle-classedness that are now finding those middle classes shrinking at an aston- ishingly rapid rate? 4 Levy Economics Institute of Bard College These questions, questions which you have been discussed at this conference over the last three years, are now public questions. They’re not academic questions, they’re not intellectual questions, they’re not questions of the elite; they’re questions of the common man and woman, of children in this country and other countries. So why do we here at the Ford Foundation, with our historic—I can say this because I wasn’t here— historic record in human rights, economic equity, education, even in the arts, why do we support a con- ference dedicated to the memory of Hyman Minsky? The answer is that Minsky developed a unique perspective in analyzing the way the financial system operates and how we answer the kinds of questions society is now asking on a daily basis. He showed us that the extent to which the financial system is regulated, transparent, and accountable has a direct impact on political and economic stability and on our ability to create fair and equitable societies. He understood that without a sound financial system, credit, loans, investment, and jobs are simply harder to come by— the kinds of things I dealt with in the private sector for 20 years at McKinsey—simply harder to come by. Without a sound financial system, income and wealth disparities grow. Indeed, we know from experience that in the United States and much of the eurozone the impact of ill-conceived economic policy, poorly executed, has devastated poor and low-income families and has put into question the viability of middle classes in those societies. Like Minsky, the Foundation has long believed that sound financial governance and oversight is the lynchpin of economic and social stability, and it is at the core of our work in this field. Let me pause here, because I want to thank Leonardo Burlamaqui . , whom many of you know and who’s led this work for us. Leonardo, I just want to thank you for making this important at the Foundation. We believe that financial institutions need to be more transparent, more accountable, and more effective in delivering the financial stability we entrust to them. They need to be responsive to the com- munities affected by their decisions. And we believe that to achieve these goals, we at the Ford Foundation must support efforts like the efforts led by many of you to rethink the global financial regulatory regime and to expand the voices engaged in that global dialogue. That’s why Leonardo does his work; it’s why we’ve spent millions of dollars supporting his work.