Westminster College Panelists to Tackle the Global Economy
Published: Monday, April 12, 2010 8:33 p.m. MDT
By Jasen Lee
SALT LAKE CITY — With the stock market topping 11,000 for the first time since 2008 as a backdrop, Utah's Westminster College will host a discussion on what could be on the economic horizon.
The panel discussion on "The Economic Outlook in the Post-Crisis Environment" will begin at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Jay W. Lees Courage Theatre in the Jewett Center for the Performing Arts. The event is free and open to the public.
"We want to show people how interdependent the world has become in its financial structures," Erin Hartshorn, executive director of the Global Interdependence Center, told the Deseret News. "That was made very evident with the financial crisis of the past couple of years.
"We're just trying to provide a way for people to wrap their heads around how all these institutions and forces … interact with each other to create the global financial scene."
The lecture is a part of GIC's International Conference Series, which explores the rebuilding of capital markets in the post-financial crisis environment, with special emphasis on the newly expanded roles for governments, central banks, nongovernmental organizations and private financial and nonfinancial businesses, according to the college.
The center is a Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization whose aim is to encourage the expansion of global dialogue and free trade in order to improve cooperation and understanding among nation states, with the goal of reducing international conflicts and improving worldwide living standards, according to the GIC Web site.
Each panel participant Wednesday will be a GIC board member, Hartshorn said. Panelists will include William Dunkelberg, GIC board chair and chief economist for the National Federation of Independent Businesses. He will discuss credit markets for small business.
The other panel members will be David Kotok, chief information officer for Vineland, N.J.-based investment firm Cumberland Advisors, and John Silvia, chief economist for Wachovia/Wells Fargo. Topics of discussion will include finance and economics; interdependence between dynamic forces and the U.S. credit market; conditions and policies.
"(Kotok) will be doing a general economic outlook … on financial markets," she said. Silvia will focus on financial institutions, she added.
Hartshorn said GIC tries to act as a "neutral convener" of dialogue on issues of global finance and economics. The organization has partnered with noncommercial institutions such as a colleges or universities or a think tank to conduct similar events in cities worldwide, including Shanghai, Hong Kong, Philadelphia, Prague and Paris.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700024047/Westminster-College-panelists-to-tackle-the-global-economy.html
