Local to Global: Rethinking Spheres of Authority after a World Financial Crisis
Co-sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Northern California, Sacramento Chapter.
[ 
Agenda ] [ Speakers ] [ Presentation Videos ]
October 16 to 17, 2009
The current financial crisis and resultant economic recession raise issues of immediate importance and profound long-range significance with respect to the regulation of financial markets and institutions and with respect to fiscal and monetary policies. The goal of this conference was to focus less on the question of what substantive regulations or other economic policies are needed, and instead looked at the question of who will do the regulating or carry out the economic policies in a world in which there are multiple layers of governments.
Some of the questions that the conference explored include:
- Should there be a supranational regulator of financial markets and institutions?
- Are sub-national units of government (example, the state courts of Delaware) the appropriate regulators for institutions with significant worldwide economic impact?
- Does the lack of a strong central government in the European Union prevent the European Union from taking a sufficiently robust response to the crisis, as, for example, in the event of sovereign defaults in Eastern Europe?
- Who regulates units of government when they act as participants in financial markets?