King's Chevening Distinguished Lecture 2019

Speaker: Martin Wolf, CBE – Associate Editor and Chief Economics Commentator, Financial Times

Chair: Alexander Downer, Executive Chair, International School for Government, King's College London

A drinks reception will follow at Bush House 8th floor South Terrace.

Financial services shape the development of the world economy and are, in turn, shaped by it. This lecture will take a broad view of these interactions.

The first part will examine the evolution of the world economy over the past forty years, focusing on the rise of Asia, the post-financial-crisis malaise, the rise of populism and the rise and fall of globalisation.

The second part will examine the macroeconomics and microeconomics of finance, focusing on why the financial sector and financial activity have grown so much, why this growth caused a huge financial crisis, and how regulators and the financial sector have responded to that disaster.

The third part will look at the challenges of the future, focusing on finance in the context of the likely development of the world economy. It will touch on how Brexit might reshape London’s role in global finance.

About Martin Wolf:

Martin Wolf is Associate Editor and Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times, London. He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 2000 “for services to financial journalism”. He was a member of the UK government’s Independent Commission on Banking between June 2010 and September 2011.

Mr Wolf is an honorary fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford University, Corpus Christi College, Oxford University and King’s College, London. He is an honorary professor at the University of Nottingham. In 2014, he was made a University Global Fellow of Columbia University, New York, and a Senior Fellow in Global Economic Policy at its School of International Public Affairs. He is a member of the International Media Council of the World Economic Forum.

Martin Wolf was made a Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, by Nottingham University in July 2006, a Doctor of Science (Economics) of London University, honoris causa, by the London School of Economics, in December 2006, a Doctor of Science, honoris causa, by Warwick University, in July 2009, a Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, by Kingston University, in January 2010, a Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, by Macquarie University, in Australia, in 2012 and a Doctor, honoris causa, by KU Leuven, in 2018.

Mr Wolf was the joint winner of the Wincott Foundation senior prize for excellence in financial journalism for 1989 and again for 1997. He won the RTZ David Watt memorial prize for 1994. In 2006, he became the sixth winner of the Journalism Prize of the Fundacio Catalunya Oberta (Open Catalonia Foundation). He won the “Commentator of the Year” award at the Business Journalist of the Year Awards of 2008. He was placed 15^th in Foreign Policy’s list of the “Top 100 Global Thinkers” in December 2009, 37^th in the same list for 2010 and 55^th for 2011. Mr Wolf won the “Ludwig-Erhard-Preis für Wirtschaftspublizistik” (“Ludwig Erhard Prize for economic commentary”) for 2009. He won “Commentariat of the Year 2009” at the Comment Awards, sponsored by Editorial Intelligence. He was the joint winner of the 2009 award for columns in “giant newspapers” at the 15^th annual Best in Business Journalism competition of The Society of American Business Editors and Writers. He won the 33^rd Ischia International Journalism Prize in 2012. He won the Overseas Press Club of America’s prize for “best commentary on international news in any medium” for 2013.

His most recent publications are Why Globalization Works (Yale University Press, 2004), Fixing Global Finance (Washington D.C: Johns Hopkins University Press, and London: Yale University Press, 2008 and 2010) and The Shifts and The Shocks: What we’ve learned – and have still to learn – from the financial crisis (London and New York: Allen Lane, 2014). China Business News named Fixing Global Finance its “Financial Book of the Year” for 2009.

Mr Wolf was educated at Oxford University.

About the Chevening Financial Services Leadership Programme:

The School of Global Affairs and the King’s Business School, King’s College London are proud to deliver the Chevening Financial Services Leadership Programme, a new UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office fellowship scheme for India, aimed at mid-career financial services professionals with demonstrable leadership potential.

Professor Alexandru Preda (Director), School of Business and Management

Dr Kriti Kapila (Director), King’s India Institute