The Dow Jones Industrial Average might be topping 10,000, but the global economy is still gripped by the worst crisis since the Great Depression. What are the lessons to be learned from the massive economic collapse of the late 1920s, and how might the current downturn affect our thinking a generation from now? Drawing on his best-selling book, Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World, noted author Liaquat Ahamed discusses insights gained from the Great Depression and the forces that cause global financial crises this Tuesday, October 20, from 7:00–8:30 pm, in his Academy Evenings presentation, Lessons from the Great Depression. Ahamed will also outline the changes necessary in the domestic regulatory structure and the global financial system to avoid a repeat of the cataclysm.
Join us for Lessons from the Great Depression at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art lecture hall this Tuesday. Or you can view the presentation in its entirety by visiting the Wisconsin Academy homepage at wisconsinacademy.org . Click the link in the “What’s New” section to view the presentation (Mac users will need Flip4Mac). If you have a question for Liaquat Ahamed during the Q&A portion of the webcast, simply e-mail it to questions@wisconsinacademy.org. Please visit our multimedia viewing opportunities page for other post-presentation viewing options.
About Wisconsin 2050: Pioneering the Future
Who will we be in the future and what are the events that will shape us? In the “Wisconsin 2050: Pioneering the Future” series of Academy Evenings presentations, the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters hopes to address these questions and more. “Wisconsin 2050” shows us our state and world through the lens of the year 2050, allowing us to make some intelligent projections about our future based on current affairs, contemporary knowledge, and research by some of our best minds. The “Wisconsin 2050: Pioneering the Future” series is sponsored by the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, University of Wisconsin–Madison, M&I Bank, the Evjue Foundation, and Isthmus Publishing Company.
LIAQUAT AHAMED
Lessons from the Great Depression
October 20, 2009, 7:00-8:30 pm at the MMoCA Lecture Hall, 221 State Street
Liaquat Ahamed has been a professional investment manager for twenty-five years. He has worked at the World Bank in Washington, DC, and the New York-based partnership of Fischer Francis Trees and Watts, where he served as chief executive. Ahamed is currently an adviser to several hedge fund groups, including the Rock Creek Group and the Rohatyn Group, is a director of Aspen Insurance Co., and is on the board of trustees of the Brookings Institution. He has degrees in economics from Harvard and Cambridge universities. Described as a “magisterial work” in the New York Times Sunday book review, Ahamed’s Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World was published by the Penguin Press in January of 2009 to critical acclaim.
Suggested Reading:
* “The Future of Global Finance,” Liaquat Ahamed. New York Times, September 17, 2009
* Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World, Penguin Press, 2009
* “Flying Blind,” review of Lords of Finance, by Joe Nocera. New York Times, February 13, 2009
