About The Conference
Criticism of global capitalism has proliferated since the onset of the Asian financial crisis in 1997. The International Monetary Fund's interventions in Asia, Russia, and Brazil-ostensibly intended to bolster the free market-have contributed to the notion that capitalism has somehow failed.
Plans for redesigning the world's financial architecture abound, but is global capitalism in crisis?
Experts from four continents gathered at this conference to discuss why recurring financial turmoil should provide a warning to countries that would move away from the free market. Participants also talked about the struggle between state corporatism in its various forms and laissez faire, and cautioned would-be architects against trying to implement an assortment of new international regulatory and institutional schemes.
Are hot money flows a blessing or a curse? What is the record of Asian reform? What are the risks of creating an international lender of last resort? How can creditors and borrowers manage debt obligations without official bailouts? How is the market creating international standards for investment? As financial officials of the industrialized nations prepared for the annual G-7 meetings, this event addressed those and other important questions.
 Senator Don Nickles |
 Charles Wolf Jr. RAND Corporation |
 Robert J. Shapiro Undersecretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs |
 Martin Krause Graduate School of Economics and Business Administration (Buenos Aires) |
 Deepak Lal University of California at Los Angeles |
 Andrei Illarionov Institute of Economic Analysis (Moscow) |
 Byeong-Ho Gong Korea Center for Free Enterprise (Seoul) |
 Brink Lindsey Center for Trade Policy Studies, Cato Institute |
 William McGurn Wall Street Journal |
| 8:15–9:00 a.m. | Registration: Wintergarden |
| 9:00–9:10 a.m. |
Welcoming Remarks: Edward H. Crane, Cato Institute Welcoming Remarks and Panel I [RealVideo] |
| 9:10–10:45 a.m. |
Panel I—The Reemergence of Global Capitalism |
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Moderator: Fred Smith, Jr., Competitive Enterprise Institute Brink Lindsey, Cato Institute, "Against The Dead Hand: The Uncertain Struggle for Global Capitalism" Frank Gavin, University of Virginia, "Was Bretton Woods a Golden Era?" Charles Wolf, Jr., RAND Corporation, "Trammeled World Markets" |
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| 10:45–11:00 a.m. |
Break Panel II [RealVideo] |
| 11:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m. |
Panel II—Crisis of Capitalism? Asia, Russia, and Latin America |
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Moderator: James A. Dorn, Cato Institute Byeong-Ho Gong, Korea Center for Free Enterprise (Seoul), "Korea's Choice: Creative Destruction or Destructive Reform." William McGurn, Wall Street Journal, "Failures and Successes in East Asia" Martin Krause, Graduate School of Economics and Business Administration (Buenos Aires), "The Neo-Liberal Phantom in Latin America" Andrei Illarionov, Institute of Economic Analysis (Moscow), "Russia's Potemkin Capitalism" |
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| 12:30–2:00 p.m. |
Luncheon Deepak Lal, University of California at Los Angeles, "The Challenge of Globalization: There Is No Third Way" Panel III [RealVideo] |
| 2:00–3:45 p.m. | Panel III—The Global Architecture: World Financial Markets by Design? |
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Moderator: Ron Krieger, Goldman Sachs & Company Robert Shapiro, Department of Commerce, "Handling Financial Crises: Where Do We Go from Here?" Onno de Beaufort Wijnholds, International Monetary Fund, "An International Lender of Last Resort?" Ian Vásquez, Cato Institute, "Repairing the Lender-Borrower Relationship in International Finance" Lawrence White, University of Georgia, "Private Evaluation vs. Global Regulation" Closing Address [RealVideo] |
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| 3:45–4:15 p.m. | Closing Address—Sen. Don Nickles |
| 4:15 p.m. | Reception |