The Financial Crisis, the U.S. Economy, and International Security in the New Administration

The current crisis of subprime mortgages, mortgage-backed securities, credit derivatives, and failing investment banks is deeper and more severe than any since the New Deal. This is a crisis originating in the United States—from the center of the global financial system. Cascading problems emerge when the world loses confidence in the system that supports the valuation of the global reserve currency because of a perception of instability, mismanagement, and corruption, leading to a breakdown in regulatory authority and market order.

Minor remedies such as increasing transparency or imposing some new regulations have been proposed, but they are plainly insufficient. This conference will consider the larger implications for U.S economic policy, and for the international financial and monetary system (IFMS) as a whole. It will take into explicit account the deep political nature of the IFMS and its effect on international security relations and the global prospects for peace.

The conference will take up four specific themes: the nature of the current crisis; economic policy challenges facing the United States; the design of a new domestic financial architecture; and the design of a new international financial architecture, if and as it becomes needed. This conference will bring together an exceptional group of close observers of the financial system, including James K. Galbraith of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs; Nobel Prize–winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz; hedge fund manager Warren B. Mosler; Allen Sinai of the consulting group Decision Economics, Inc.; Jeff Madrick, director of policy research at the Schwartz Center; and many others.

Although there is no cost to attend, preregistration is requested. To register, e-mail EPS Director Thea Harvey, at theaharvey@epsusa.org.