Last in our series of video interviews from the Institute for New Economic Thinking conference: George Soros, chair of Soros Fund Management LLC and founder of the Open Society Institute.
Two years after efforts to repair the post-crisis financial system began in earnest, David Brancaccio asks him how we’re doing, and what still needs fixing.
EDITED TRANSCRIPT
George Soros: I don’t think that we are about to have any kind of replay of the financial crisis that we experienced in 2008. At the same time, there are unresolved issues that are also not about to be resolved.
The regulations that have been enacted are actually the work of a very imperfect political process. To regulate you have to have all the countries agree. And since now you are in a political situation and politics is still based on the sovereignty of states, they really decide and have the last say. And that is where the problem is: How do you get them to agree?
And in some ways, they really fail to address the issues. You mentioned derivatives. Actually that’s something that has been really just touched at the margin. But it has not been brought under control at all.
Basically, we haven’t really decided whether this swollen financial system is a benefit or a detriment to the country. Because currently financial system takes up a very large part of our economy, a large part of the profits generated by companies, and is is that something that’s a disease? Or is that a great source of strength?
MORE VIDEOS IN THIS INTERVIEW SERIES:
VIDEO: Debt overhang and other problems that worry Carmen Reinhart, Peterson Institute economist and co-author of “This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly.”Watch now.
VIDEO: Dealing with Too Big To Fail banks with Simon Johnson, professor of entrepreneurship, global economics and management at MIT and co-author of “13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown.” Watch now.
VIDEO: Overcoming the “Balance Sheet Recession” with Richard Koo, chief analyst at Nomura Research Institute, the analysis arm of Japan’s Nomura Securities. Watch now.
VIDEO:The internal contradictions of our post-crisis policies with Niall Ferguson, financial historian and author of “The Ascent of Money” and “Civilization: The West and the Rest,” to be published in the U.S. this fall. Watch now.
VIDEO:Dealing with debt with Kenneth Rogoff, economist and co-author of “This Time its Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly.” Watch now.
VIDEO: Fixing the world economy with Jean-Paul Fitoussi, an economist at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, and part of the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi commission that French President Nicolas Sarkozy asked to study moving beyond GDP. Watch now.
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