The financial crisis that has gripped global markets over the last year or so is generating a global economic downturn of a severity not seen since the 1930s. On that occasion, a collapse of credit, trade, production, and living standards was associated with the spread of state intervention and fundamental shift in the political landscape.

While considering the past, the panel will address the future.

• What were the drivers of the financial crisis and what measures can be taken to prevent or reduce the probability of a recurrence?
• Can the system of financial capitalism as we know it continue?
• What does the crisis tell us about economic behaviour?
• Does scope remain for coordinated action to mitigate the intensity of the present global downturn?
• Over the coming decade, how is the political and economic framework of economic policy likely to change, and how should it change?
• What sort of economics and what kind of economists will be in demand in ten years’ time?”