DCene - 2009 Annual Conference: 100 Days

The Bertelsmann Foundation joined forces with its media partner, the Financial Times, to

host “The First 100 Days. Opportunities in Crisis: Empowering society in a time of

economic turmoil” on April 23 at Washington, DC’s Newseum. The conference, timed to

coincide with US President Barack Obama’s 100th day in office, brought together about 200

high-level representatives from the US and European political, corporate, media, academic

and think-tank communities to discuss innovative, yet practical and realistic, solutions to

the economic crisis.

Conference participants included EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin

Almunia, French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, Ukrainian Vice-Prime Minister Hryhoriy

Nemyria, philanthropist George Soros and World Bank President Robert Zoellick. Messrs.

Almunia, Soros and Zoellick comprised the keynote speakers. Minister Lagarde and Vice-

Prime Minister Nemyria joined one of five panels that examined different aspects of the crisis.

For the conference agenda, go to: http://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/bst/en/media/xcms_bst_dms_27945_27946_2.pdf.

Summaries of individual sessions can be found on the following pages, along with links to full reports on each session.

DCeneInspiring People. Shaping the Future.

“The First 100 Days” Conference Examines Options for New Economic Growth

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Debating the need for a global financial architecture Photo by: Kaveh Sardari

Hosts Liz Mohn and Gunter Thielen of the Bertelsmann Foundation Photo by: David Hills

©Copyright 2009, Bertelsmann Foundation. All rights reserved.1101 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 901 • Washington, DC 20005 USA • Tel: +1.202.384.1980 www.bertelsmann-foundation.org

S P E C I A L E D I T I O N

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Robert Zoellick, President, World Bank GroupMr. Zoellick called on G-20 nations to

follow through on pledges made at their

recent London summit to ease the

burdens of the current economic crisis.

He urged conference participants to

turn their attention to developing

countries and see the crisis from their

point of view. These countries, he said,

require investment in a number of

areas, especially infrastructure and

agriculture. He cited China as an

example of a country that has benefited from such investment, noting that the Chinese have

thereby created a foundation for growth. This was especially important since the current crisis has

eroded jobs in the developing world and has led to a decrease in remittances from migrants in

industrialized nations.

For a full report on this session, go to:

http://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/bst/en/media/xcms_bst_dms_27870_27871_2.pdf

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:Joaquín Almunia, EUCommissioner for Economicand Monetary AffairsMr. Almunia echoed the call for greater

trans-Atlantic cooperation in

confronting the global economic crisis.

The commissioner admitted that the

downturn had hit Europe as hard as the

US, although he originally thought that

that would not be the case.



KEYNOTE SPEAKER: George Soros, Chairman, Soros Fund Management, LLCMr. Soros delivered the final keynote

address at the conference, calling the

current economic crisis the worst since

the Great Depression. “This crisis is not

just an ordinary bubble, it’s a super

bubble,” he said, conceding that the

collapse of financial markets was

generated in the US. He called the

belief in self-regulating and self-

correcting markets a misconception,

warning that the mispricing that occurs

in financial markets can be self-reinforcing, making them prone to bubbles.



…on the Bertelsmann Foundation

GUNTER THIELEN, President andCEO, Bertelsmann Foundation

“As one of Europe’s leading think

tanks, we see a need, particularly in

these times, to strengthen trans-

Atlantic ties. Our purpose is to

strengthen the networks across the

Atlantic and to exchange best

practices among Europeans and

Americans. We want to challenge

conventional thinking and policy to

learn from one another, to improve

and advance our societies.”

…on the causes of the globalfinancial crisis

GEORGE SOROS, Chairman, SorosFund Management, LLC

“…this is not just an ordinary

bubble, it's a super bubble. And the

housing crisis was merely the

detonator that detonated the

explosion of the super bubble. Now

the super bubble is a more

complicated animal because there

again, the underlying trend is the

increasing use of credit and

leverage. And the misconception is

the belief that markets are self-

correcting and there's no need to

regulate them.”

Quotes of the Day

Photo by: David Hills

Photo by: Kaveh Sardari


PANEL 1Shared Responsibilities: The Roles of Government, Industry and Laborin an Economic Downturn“Financial capitalism is not

dead. It is in hibernation.” With

these words, Financial Times

Editor-in-Chief Lionel Barber

opened the Bertelsmann

Foundation’s 100 Days

conference. The form of

capitalism that should exist in

the wake of the financial crisis,

however, became the main topic

of discussion during the

conference’s first panel.

PANELISTS:

Roel Campos, Partner, Colley Godward Kronish LLP, member of President Obama’s Economic

Advisory Board and former Securities and Exchange Commission Commissioner

Leonhard Fisher, CEO, RHJ International and former member of the Credit Suisse Group

Executive Board

Reiner Hoffmann, Deputy Secretary General, European Trade Union Confederation

Nancy LeaMond, Executive Vice President, AARP Social Impact and Director, Divided We Fail

Campaign

Moderator: Lionel Barber, Editor, Financial Times



PANEL 2Greening the Stimulus: Climate and EnergyThis session examined the

options for using the US

economic-stimulus package as

an unprecedented opportunity

for controlling global warming,

reducing dependence on foreign

sources of fossil fuels, and

researching technology for

sustainable energy. Panelists

agreed that the stimulus’ focus

should go beyond the

immediate goals of kick-starting

the economy to include long-

term gains for sustainable, environmentally friendly growth.

PANELISTS:

Gerald Fine, President and CEO, SCHOTT North America

Caio Koch-Weser, Vice Chairman, Deutsche Bank Group

Lewis Milford, Founder and President, Clean Energy Group

…on dealing with the globaleconomic crisis

ROBERT ZOELLICK, President, WorldBank Group

“…I think one of the challenges,

whenever you’re in a crisis, is you

have to be fast and flexible in

dealing with the problems of the

day. But you have to try to keep

your eyes out a little bit further on,

learn lessons from looking back in

the past and try to see how you can

plant seeds today that will create

opportunities tomorrow.”

…on the consequences of theglobal economic crisis

CHRISTINE LAGARDE, FinanceMinister, France

“What I believe is that consumption,

hopefully throughout the world, is

going to be of a different nature. It’s

going to be much more mindful of

limited resources, of natural

resources, of the necessity to invest in

new technologies that will be

sufficiently creative and innovative so

that we do not draw on those fossil

resources that will exhaust and just

naturally by virtue of use. So, I think,

it’s going to be a new balance, just in

the way the world has changed and

will never be the same again because

we have the emerging countries as

new players, because we need to set

new rules. In the same vein, I think

we will move towards new

consumption trends that will play a

different role in the way in which it

kick-starts and stimulates and

maintains growth.”

Quotes of the Day



Margrete Strand Rangnes, Deputy Director, Blue Green Alliance

Moderator: Paula Stern, Chairwoman, The Stern Group, Inc. And former Chairwoman, US

International Trade Commission



PANEL 3Divisions of Labor: Wages, Pensions and BenefitsThe state of the American and

European labor markets, the

importance of training and skill

development to economic

competitiveness, growing

inequality as exemplified by

Wall Street bonuses, and

cultural values that impact

today’s workers formed the

main topics of discussion

during this panel.

PANELISTS:

Barbara Dyer, President and CEO, Hitachi Foundation and Chairwoman,

National Taskforce on Workforce Development

Scott Paul, Executive Director, Alliance for American Manufacturing

Xavier Prats Monné, Director for Employment, Lisbon Strategy and International Affairs,

Directorate General for Employment, Social Policy and Equal Opportunities, European

Commission

Howard Rosen, Executive Director, Trade Adjustment Assistance Coalition

Moderator: Bruce Stokes, Trade and International Economics Correspondent, National Journal



PANEL 4Caring for Health: Systems, Access and Reform“No issue is more complex or

more critical than healthcare,

and the current system is very

difficult to address.” With that,

Ronald Brownstein, political

director of Atlantic Media Co.,

set the tone for the debate on

healthcare. Forty-five million

Americans lack health insurance

while health costs continue to

increase significantly. Reforming

the US healthcare system, which

would have to address both

issues, returned to the spotlight

when US President Barack Obama and the new Congress made it a top priority. A framework for

reform in the US, Mr. Brownstein predicted, could come by the end of the year.

LEONHARD FISCHER, CEO, RHJInternational and former memberof the Credit Suisse Group ExecutiveBoard

“I’m very afraid that the tendency of

public policy in the last 12 months

has been the evolution of the

acceptance and the need of the

free-market society to lose, fail, and

go bankrupt. And if that prevails

then I would be seriously worried.”

“…the moment someone takes away

my right to lose money they take

away my moral right to make

money…”

“…in a world where financial

companies are no longer allowed to

go bankrupt they need to be

regulated extremely… You have to

limit the size of them. You have to

limit the scope of them, and you

have to limit their freedom because

you only are entitled to optimize

your profit if you’re also entitled to

go bust.”

…on trans-Atlantic financial-sector regulation

JOAQUIN ALMUNIA, EUCommissioner for Economic andMonetary Affairs

“…I hope we will be able to agree

on the same kind of regulatory

reforms for the financial sector. We

need financial regulatory convergence

between the US and EU. And [it] is

extremely important to have an

efficient financial system because

the financial system in the future

cannot be based on leverage, on the

excesses that triggered these crises.

And we need that sound regulation

on both sides of the Atlantic.”

Quotes of the Day



…on healthcare reform

HOWARD DEAN, physician, formerGovernor of Vermont and USpresidential candidate in 2004

“…Americans think that death is an

avoidable consequence of any

illness…. It leads to this attitude that

we can spend anything we want to

and achieve any result and anything

is possible…. We think it’s perfectly

fine to go to McDonald’s and then

hire someone to ream out our

arteries 25 years later.”

UWE REINHARDT, professor,Princeton University

“The reason why we don’t have

queues in America is… we ration by

price and ability to pay. An

uninsured person, on average, gets

about half the healthcare of an

equivalently insured [person].

“…an awful lot of American illness is

actually caused by having to deal

with the market and all its

uncertainties. There are not many

Europeans who lie in bed, wake up

at three in the morning and worry

about losing health insurance. Our

papers are full of tragic stories.”

Quotes of the DayPANELISTS:

Howard Dean, Physician and former Governor of Vermont

Karin Johansson, State Secretary, Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, Sweden

Uwe Reinhardt, Professor, Princeton University

Anthony Welters, Executive Vice President, UnitedHealth Group and President, Public & Senior

Markets Group

Moderator: Ronald Brownstein, Political Director, Atlantic Media Co.



PANEL 5The Need for a Global Financial ArchitectureThe conference’s final session

addressed the need for a global

financial architecture in the

aftermath of the current

economic crisis. Panelists

debated methods of regulation

that would not stymie growth

but would prevent the outbreak

of another crisis.

PANELISTS:

Lescek Balcerowicz, Professor,

Wausau School of Economics

and former Finance Minister, Poland

Robert Hormats, Vice Chairman, Goldman Sachs (International)

Christine Lagarde, Finance Minister, France

Hryhoriy Nemyria, Vice-Prime Minister for European and International Integration, Ukraine

Wolfgang Schüssel, former Chancellor, Austria, and member of the Austrian People’s Party

parliamentary group

Moderator: Chrystia Freeland, U.S. Managing Editor, Financial Times





450 guests attended a pre-conference reception atWashington, DC’s National Portrait Gallery

…on labor-market reform

REINER HOFFMANN, DeputySecretary General, European TradeUnion Confederation

“I’m very keen for what we are calling

a social-market economy, which is

entirely different from a free-market

economy. Because if you ask the

question on fairness, you [must] look

at the income distribution over the

last decades. Taking the example of

the United States, huge increases in

productivity [occurred while] wages

have stagnated. This is fair…?”

XAVIER PRATS MONNÉ, Director forEmployment, Lisbon Strategy andInternational Affairs, DirectorateGeneral for Employment, SocialPolicy and Equal Opportunities,European Commission

“…the most expensive thing is to

[take] people out of the labor market

because you never get them back in…

Let’s do what we can to keep people in

employment even if that means

reducing working time…. This is…

what one can take home from what

our successful European experience is.”

…on developing greentechnologies

CAIO KOCH-WESER, Vice Chairman,Deutsche Bank Group

“It’s very important not just to focus

on the immediate stimulus packages,

but how they are embedded in the

medium-term policy perspective.

There is increasingly the awareness

that, in terms of future sources of

growth that will replace many of the

sources of growth we will not have

in the future world economy,

climate change [and] energy

efficiency will create jobs and will

be… major growth areas.“

Quotes of the Day









Documents

DCene - 2009 Annual Conference: 100 Days