International Conference on ‘Recovery or Bubble? The Global Economy Today’, Organised by IDEAs, Gulmohar Hall, Indian Habitat Centre, New Delhi, 29-30 January 2010.

Click for the Conference Report

While production and employment indicators in many countries point to stabilisation and recovery from the economic recession in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, there are debates about the economic recovery that is underway and fears of a new speculative boom on which the global recovery rides. These principally relate to the policy decisions taken in the US and many other countries in response to the financial crisis which involved easy monetary policy to save the financial system and real economy from collapse, and fiscal stimuli to trigger a recovery. There are signs of a bubble similar to the one which led to the credit-financed housing and consumer-spending boom that preceded the 2008 downturn. Meanwhile, there has been very little progress on the proposals on reforming the financial system to prevent the future occurrence of similar or related crisis. The proposed conference seeks to analyse the various contours of the global economic recovery underway such as the current growth trajectories of the major developed and emerging countries, the role of fiscal and monetary stimuli; and the continuing global imbalances. It would also analyse the post-crisis changes in financial structures and look at how to reform the financial regulatory framework so as to cushion the developing countries against future shocks.

The Programme of the conference with links to the presentations/paper follows below:

29 January 2010

Welcome and Introduction: Jayati Ghosh (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)

Session I: Is there a Recovery? (9:30 a.m.-1 p.m.)

Jan Kregel (University of Missouri, Kansas City and Levy Economics Institute, Bard College, New York)

Arturo O’Connell (Board of Governors, Central Bank of the Argentine Republic)

Rainer Kattel (Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia), Europe and the Crisis
(Presentation)

Session II: Global Imbalances (2 p.m.-5:30 p.m.)

Chair: Abhijit Sen (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi & Member, Planning Commission)

Prabhat Patnaik (Kerala State Planning Board and Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi), The Diffusion of Activities (Note)

Terry McKinley (Center for Development Policy and Research, SOAS, London University), The US-China Marriage of Convenience: Prospects for Global Imbalances and Economic Recovery (Presentation)

K. S. Jomo (UN Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, New York), Facing Multiple Crises: What is to be Done? (Presentation)

30 January 2010

Session I: Finance and the Real Economy (9:30 a.m. -1 p.m.)

Chair: C.P. Chandrasekhar (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)

Gabriel Palma (University of Cambridge)

Rizal Ramli (Chairman, Komite Bangkit Indonesia), Finance and Real Sector (Presentation)

Saul Keifman (University of Buenos Aires, Argentina), The Unravelling of Financialization: A Macroeconomic Perspective (Presentation)

Session II: The Future of Finance (2 p.m.-5:30 p.m.)

Chair: Jan Kregel (University of Missouri, Kansas City and Levy Economics Institute, Bard College, New York)

Leonardo Burlamaqui (The Ford Foundation, Peace and Social Justice Program, Governance & Civil Society), The Financial Crisis, and Reforming Global Finance: Problem Statement, Recent Developments and Contours of a Reform Agenda(Presentation)

Ajit Singh (Emeritus Professor of Economics, University of Cambridge, Senior Research Fellow, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge) and Josephine Ann Zammit (Independent Consultant on Development Economics, Geneva)

Jan Kregel (University of Missouri, Kansas City and Levy Economics Institute, Bard College, New York)

Summing Up by C.P. Chandrasekhar (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)