Crisis and Renewal: International Political Economy at the Crossroads
Bretton Woods, New Hampshire
April 8-11, 2011
The Institute for New Economic Thinking held its second annual plenary conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. In 1944, the same hotel was the site of the negotiations that devised the international financial architecture that prevailed for a generation; this year, 250 economists came to hear presentations by 80 economic experts. Whether you attended or not, you have the opportunity to watch the conference in its entirety on our website.
The conference opened with a call from INET's Executive Director, Dr. Robert A. Johnson, who emphasized the need to create a community that rebuilds trust in economics and reestablishes the legitimacy of the profession as credible and relevant in the current world.
Over the course of the three-day conference, presentations spanned a range of issues from the challenge to effective international supervision presented by large complex financial institutions, to macroeconomic management after a financial crisis, to the extent that market forces can deliver innovation, education, and infrastructure, to sustainable economics, to current issues in the financial structures of Europe and Asia, and more.
Adair Turner delivered a keynote speech that critiqued economists’ emphasis on GDP growth, and market liberalization, and their indifference to inequality. Gordon Brown gave a stirring speech on his role in the recent economic crisis and the dramatic shift in the economic center of gravity. Martin Wolf engaged Larry Summers in a discussion about the limitations of current economic thinking, and Gillian Tett interviewed George Soros and Paul Volcker about current financial problems. Jim Balsillie led off a striking panel on climate change and sustainability.
We encourage you to browse through the Bretton Woods Conference pages to find videos of each conference session, speaker presentation materials and papers, interviews, and the Bretton Woods Blog.
Significance of the Mount Washington Hotel
In 1944 the United States government chose the Mount Washington Hotel as the site for the first Bretton Woods Conference, which established the World Bank and chose the American dollar as the backbone of international exchange. The meeting provided the world with badly needed post war currency stability.
Speakers
A
Anat Admati, Professor of Finance and Economics, Stanford University
Phillipe Aghion, Professor of Economics, Harvard University
George Akerlof, UC Berkeley
W. Brian Arthur, Fellow, Econometric Society
B
Jim Balsillie, Founder and Chair, CIGI
Eric Beinhocker, Senior Fellow, McKinsey and Company
Erik Berglöf, Chief Economist and Special Adviser, European Bank for Reconstruction & Development
Tom Bernes, Executive Director, CIGI
Paul Blustein, Brookings Institute
Claudio Borio, Bank for International Settlements
James Boughton, Historian, IMF
Richard Bronk, London School of Economics
Gordon Brown, Former Prime Minister, United Kingdom
C
Wendy Carlin, University College London
John Cassidy, The New Yorker
Ha-Joon Chang, Reader, Political Economy of Development, University of Cambridge
Barbara Craig, Oberlin College
Marcello De Cecco, Professor of Monetary and Financial History, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa
D
Charles Dallara, Institute of International Finance
Brad Delong, Professor of Economics, University of California at Berkeley
E
Barry Eichengreen, Professor of Economics and Political Science , University of California Berkeley
Alex Evans, Head of Research Program on Climate Change, Resource Scarcity and Multilateralism, Center of International Cooperation, NYU
F
Niall Ferguson, Professor of History, Harvard University
Thomas Ferguson, Professor of Political Science, University of Massachusetts
Jean-Paul Fitoussi, Professor of Economics, Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris
Duncan Foley, Professor, New School of Social Research
Jeffrey Frankel, Professor of Capital Formation and Growth, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Chrystia Freeland, Editor at Large, Reuters
Roman Frydman, Professor of Economics, New York University
G
Ian Goldin, James Martin 21st Century School
H
Andy Haldane, Executive Director, Financial Stability, Bank of England
Carl-Ludwig Holtfrerich, Professor of Economics and Economic History, Freie Universitat Berlin
Kevin Hoover, Duke University
Thomas Homer-Dixon, Director, Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation, University of Waterloo
Yasheng Huang, Sloan School of Management, MIT
J
Joyce Jacobsen, Wesleyan University
Harold James, Professor of History, Princeton University
William Janeway, Senior Advisor, Warburg Pincus
Marleen Janssen Groesbeek, Policy Advisory, Eumedion
Paul Jenkins, Distinguished Fellow , Centre for International Governance Innovation
Robert A. Johnson, INET Executive Director
Simon Johnson, Professor of Entrepreneurship, Global Economics and Management, Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, D.C
Peter Jungen, Peter Jungen Holding GmbH
K
Anatole Kaletsky, Associate Editor, The Times
Henry Kaufman, President, Henry Kaufman & Co., Inc.
John Kay, Columnist, Financial Times
Richard Koo, Chief Economist, Nomura Research Institute
Louis Kuijs, Senior Economist, World Bank (Beijing)
L
William Lazonick, Professor, Economics, University of Massachusetts
Robert Litan, Vice President for Research and Policy, Kauffman Foundation
Barry Lynn, New America Foundation
M
Wolfgang Munchau, Associate Editor, Financial Times
Dalia Marin, Professor of International Economics, University of Munich
Felix Martin, Thames River Capital
Richard McGregor, Financial Times
Perry Mehrling, Professor, Barnard College, Columbia University
Zhu Min, Special Advisor, International Monetary Fund
Alan Murray, Wall Street Journal
N
Daniel Neilson, Bard College, Simon's Rock
O
Kevin O’Rourke, Professor of Economics, Trinity College (Dublin)
P
Jean Pisani-Ferry, Director, Bruegel, Brussels
R
Y.V. Reddy, Former Governor, The Reserve Bank of India, currently University of Hyderabad
William Rees, Professor, University of British Columbia
Carmen Reinhart, Dennis Weatherstone Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics
Kenneth Rogoff, Professor of Economics, Harvard University
S
Andre Sapir, Professor of Economics, Université Libre de Bruxelles
Orville Schell, Director, Center on US-China Relations
Garry Schinasi, Visiting Fellow, Bruegel, Brussels
Mario Seccareccia, Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa
Andrew Sheng, Chief Adviser, China Banking Regulatory Commission
Victor Shih, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Northwestern University
Robert Skidelsky, Emeritus Professor of Political Economy, The University of Warwick
John Smithin, Professor of Economics, Schulich School of Business
George Soros, Chairman - Soros Fund Management and Open Society Foundations
Joseph Stiglitz, University Professor, Columbia University, Nobel Laureate
Larry Summers, Harvard University
Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA)
T
Alan Taylor, Director, Center for the Evolution of the Global Economy at UC Davis
Gillian Tett, US Managing Editor, Financial Times
Niels Thygesen, Emeritus Professor of International Economics, University of Copenhagen
Camilla Toulmin, International Institute for Environment and Development
Adair Turner, Chairman, Financial Services Authority
U
Leanne Ussher, Assistant Professor of Economics, The City University of New York
V
Andrés Velasco, Chile's Former Minister of Finance
Paul Volcker, Former Chairman, Federal Reserve
W
Christian Westerlind Wigstrom, PhD Candidate, University of Oxford
Martin Wolf, Chief Economics Commentator, Financial Times
Y
Yu Yongding, Director, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Z
Steve Ziliak, Professor of Economics, Roosevelt University
