Panelists:

Roberto Bissio (Director, Third World Network and Social Watch)
Danny Leipziger (Professor, George Washington University School of Business; former Vice President, World Bank)
Jomo K.S. (Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development in the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA))
Ngaire Woods (Director, Global Economic Governance Programme, Oxford University)
Nancy Alexander (Heinrich Böll Foundation North America)

Most “experts” – including the financial press and think tanks - didn’t see the global financial crisis coming. Why might this be the case? Are crises anomalous by nature and, therefore, unpredictable? Or, along with “regulatory capture,” is there “media capture”? “Ideology capture”?  Are the few experts who predicted the crisis (for the “correct” reasons) outside of the mainstream? Do we have what some have described as a “Ponzi Scheme of Economic Knowledge” due to the lack of diversity in research, expertise, and “reliable sources”? The discussion highlighted the fact that, unless the causes of the crisis are properly understood, appropriate solutions will be elusive.  

For inquiries on this event, please contact Nancy Alexander: alexander[at]boell.org.