Online Debate

Does the current financial system disserve society? #FBFDiscuss!

A new event of the #FBFDiscuss series

Add to calendar 2022-11-14 13:00 2022-11-14 14:00 Europe/Rome Does the current financial system disserve society? #FBFDiscuss! Online Zoom YYYY-MM-DD

Scheduled dates

Nov 14 2022

13:00 - 14:00 CET

Online, Zoom

Organised by

This new FBFDiscuss! debate will focus on the motion "This house believes that the financial system in its current form does not serve society." proposed by Katharina Pistor (Columbia Law School at Columbia University) and opposed by Andreas Dombret (Former Board Member of Deutsche Bundesbank & former ECB Supervisory Board Member, Global Senior Adviser at Oliver Wyman)

Since the 1980s, there has been an apparent bias in wealth distribution, with wealth disparities rising steeply in most advanced economies. Does finance have something to do with this trend? Recent research has confirmed that financial assets, such as companies' stock, are a dominant source of wealth in today’s economy and that unequal rents are linked to the different composition of households' portfolios. The narrative goes that the wealthy, having access to more stock and financial assets, hoard the benefits from the welfare increase brought about by the financial system. As a result, there seems to be a link between wealth inequalities and financial overgrowth. We have invited two high level speakers, Katharina Pistor and Andreas Dombret, to propose and oppose the motion and guide us in the difficult task of understanding the real issues at stake.