MASIC ANNUAL INVESTMENT FORUM 2016
10th Anniversary

Future of the European Monetary Union - Global implications

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel once said that the euro crisis is the greatest test Europe has faced since the signing of the treaty of Rome in 1957 - the formation of the European Economic Community. While the European central bank has managed to stabilize the bond markets, the economies of the European core and its periphery are drifting apart. As this happens, human costs mount and disintegration becomes an increasing threat. It has been eight years since the financial crisis and the second largest economy in the world is not yet out of the woods. This year's forum has managed to assemble a great panel of speakers that are renowned for their global, and in particular euro zone analysis & insight. The speakers will address topics focusing on the effectiveness and efficiency of the political measures taken during the crisis; The monetary policy of the European Central Bank is analyzed and compared to the federal reserve monetary policy; European and euro area productivity perspective; growth and job creation in the years to come; geo-strategic and global financial risks that could hamper the European continent and the global economy; how long will the major central banks remain accommodative?

Speakers

Jean-Claude Trichet

Chairman of the Group of Thirty, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bruegel Institute, Former President of the European Central Bank, Honorary Governor of the Banque France

Jean-Claude Trichet is presently chairman of the Group of Thirty (Washington), chairman of the Board of Directors of Bruegel Institute and a member of the « Institut de France » (Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques).
Jean-Claude Trichet was elected Chairman of the Group of Ten (G10) Governors on 29 June 2003. He was elected President of the "Global economy meeting" of Central Bank governors and President of the Group of Governors and heads of supervision (GHOS) in Basel (until October 2011). He was appointed President of the European Central Bank on 16 October 2003 by common accord of the Governments of the Member States that have adopted the euro at the level of Heads of State or Government for a term of office of eight years starting on 1 November 2003 and ending on 31 October 2011. Since late 2010 and until end of October 2011, Mr Trichet has also been Chairman of the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB).

Carmen M. Reinhart

Minos A. Zombanakis Professor of the International Financial System at Harvard Kennedy School

Carmen M. Reinhart is the Dennis Weatherstone Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. She was previously Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for International Economics at the University of Maryland. She received her Ph.D. from Columbia University.
Professor Reinhart held positions as Chief Economist and Vice President at the investment bank, Bear Stearns, in the 1980s, where she became interested in financial crises, international contagion and commodity price cycles. Subsequently, she spent several years at the International Monetary Fund. She is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Yanis Varoufakis

Professor of Economic Theory at Athens University, former Greek Minister of Finance

Yanis Varoufakis PhD (Economics) read mathematics and economics at the Universities of Essex and Birmingham. He has been professor of economics at the Universities of East Anglia, Cambridge, Sydney, Glasgow, Athens and Texas, as well as an in-house economist for a software company.
He was elected to Greece's Parliament with the largest share of votes in January 2015 and served as Greece's Finance Minister (January to July 2015). During his term he experienced first-hand the intricate and complex relationship between government, markets and people, the European Union's institutions, the IMF, as well as the global political, economic and financial arena.

Nik Gowing

BBC Presenter

Nik Gowing was a main news presenter for the BBC's international 24-hour news channel BBC World News 1996-2014. He presented The Hub with Nik Gowing, BBC World Debates, Dateline London, plus location coverage of major global stories. He also reported extensively from the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos each year, and still attends each year being a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Geo-Economics.

The MASIC Annual Investment Forum