Event: Professor John Kay – “Other People’s Money: Masters of the Universe or Servants of the People”
A Transcript of this event is available here.
Tuesday 15th March, 9am-10.15am, Committee Room 14, House of Commons
New City Agenda is delighted to invite you to:
Other People’s Money: Masters of the Universe or Servants of the People
A talk by Professor John Kay
To register please contact dominic.lindley@newcityagenda.co.uk
John Kay’s new book “Other People’s Money” outlines how we all depend on the finance sector. We need it to store our money, manage our payments, finance housing stock, restore infrastructure, fund retirement and support new business. But these roles comprise only a tiny sliver of the sector’s activity: the vast majority of lending is within the finance sector. So what is it all for? What is the purpose of this activity? And why is it so profitable?
John will discuss how the financial sector has grown too large, detached itself from ordinary business and everyday life, and has become an industry that mostly trades with itself, talks to itself, and judges itself by reference to standards which it has itself generated. And the outside world has itself adopted those standards, bailing out financial institutions that have failed all of us through greed and mismanagement
He believes that the responses to the financial crisis are characterised by two widespread misunderstandings. The first mistake is to believe the crisis is an inexplicable, once in a lifetime, event, rather than another demonstration of an increasingly dysfunctional financial system. The second error is an extreme naiveté about what regulation can achieve.
The Economist said that this book “should be read by everyone concerned with preventing the next crisis.”
John Kay is an economist whose career has spanned the academic world, business and public affairs. He contributes a weekly column to the Financial Times and recently chaired the Review of UK Equity Markets and Long-Term Decision-Making which reported to the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills in July 2012.
Do join us for what we expect to be an insightful event. Please could you confirm your attendance by contacting dominic.lindley@newcityagenda.co.uk