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Session 4 The Euro and the ECB: Challenges in Times of Instability
A panel of international experts will address the reserve currency of the euro and the role of the European Central Bank in light of issues raised by the global financial crisis and the economic slowdown now (December 2008) evident in the European Union. What are the ECB’s track record and likely approach going forward?
Presentations
Speakers
Nigel Nagarajan
European Commission
Nigel Nagarajan is Economic and Financial Counselor and Head of Economic and Financial Affairs at the Delegation of the European Commission to the United States in Washington, DC. He is responsible for analyzing and reporting on macroeconomic developments in the US and European economies, and representing the European Commission on economic matters in the US. Before coming to Washington, he worked for the European Commission's economic service in Brussels, specializing in Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), exchange rate analysis and international economic issues. He has written on a number of economic issues, including the causes of slow growth in Italy and an assessment of EMU after its first five years, which he also co-edited. He holds a Master of Arts degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford, and a Master of Science degree in Economics from Birkbeck College, University of London.
Sara L. Johnson
Global Insight
Sara Johnson is Managing Director of Global Macroeconomics with Global Insight, Inc. In this role, she helps Global Insight’s clients assess worldwide business and financial opportunities and risks. Global Insight provides economic forecasts and analyses of 204 countries as well as research studies of critical economic issues. She was previously North American Research Director and Chief Regional Economist with Standard & Poor’s DRI, a predecessor of Global Insight. As research director, she managed the U.S. Macro, U.S. Regional, U.S. Industry, Cost Forecasting, and Canadian services and served on Standard & Poor’s five-member Economic Council.
Ms. Johnson holds a B.A. degree in economics and mathematics from Wellesley College and an M.A. in economics from Harvard University with concentrations in finance and macroeconomic theory.
From 1991 to 2001, Ms. Johnson served on the Governor’s Economic Council, advising three Massachusetts governors on public policy and economic development and chairing the Governor's Task Force on Tax Policy and Capital Formation through 1999.
Ms. Johnson is a director of the National Association for Business Economics and a member of The Boston Economic Club and American Economic Association.
Carmen Reinhart
University of Maryland
Carmen M. Reinhart is Professor of Economics at the School of Public Policy and the Department of Economics at the University of Maryland. She is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research. She has served on the editorial boards of the American Economic Review and the Journal of International Economics, among others. She received her Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Reinhart held positions as Chief Economist and Vice President at the investment bank Bear Stearns and more recently, as Deputy Director at the Research Department of the International Monetary Fund. She has written and published on a variety of topics in macroeconomics and international finance and trade including: international capital flows, capital controls, inflation and commodity prices, banking and sovereign debt crises, currency crashes, and contagion. Her work has been published in leading scholarly journals, including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and the Journal of Economic Perspectives. Her work is frequently featured in the financial press around the world, including The Economist, The Financial Times, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. She is currently working (with Kenneth S. Rogoff) on a book on the history of financial crises entitled This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly.