From Big Bang to Black Hole: How the Financial System Became a Parasite, then a Vampire, and How to Reverse the Process

Eric De Keuleneer, Economics Professor at Solvay Business School, former Member of the Belgian Surveillance Board of the Financial and Insurance Commission

"Rescuing Civilization From The Brink"
International Schiller Institute conference
Rüsselsheim, Germany
July 2-3, 2011
http://schiller-institut.de/seiten/2011/konferenz-zivilisation-retten.html

TRANSCRIPT:

Good morning ladies and gentlemen,

I have a few slides prepared. I hope they will come soon. I'm very happy to be with you this morning. I'm going to try to discuss with you the present state of our financial system and what can be learned from what is happening and where we hopefully could go with some effort.

To start with, I think it's worth reminding precisely how (interrupted by technician) The last great financial crisis we had was in the 1920s and, in the 1920s, if the Glass-Steagall came into being, it was after substantial analysis and examination of what had caused the crisis of the Great Depression of the 1930s and it was recognized that the main reason for that depression had been the financial excesses of the 1920s. And those financial excesses concentrate on, first of all, on the weakening of deposit taking banks which had been taking too much risk with depositor's money, and secondly on substantial conflicts of interest of the various type of finance companies.

Therefore, what is globally known as the "Glass-Steagall system" provided first of all that banks that took deposits became very limited in the kinds of risks they could take, and secondly, that various banking functions had to be separated. ...

More: http://schiller-institut.de/seiten/2011/ruesselsheim/20110702-de-keuleneer.html