Global Aging and Financial Markets
CSIS's Global Aging Initiative, Macroeconomic Advisers, and the Council on Foreign Relations co-hosted a major conference on "Global Aging and Financial Markets." The conference brought together over 150 economists and financial market experts to debate how emerging demographic trends are likely to affect rates of savings and investment, asset prices, and global capital flows.
Key questions discussed at the conference included:
- Is the United States heading for a fiscal train-wreck?
- Will the mass retirement of Baby Boomers trigger a meltdown in equity markets?
- Will stagnating population growth translate into stagnating economic and living standard growth?
- Can capital flows from a younger and faster-growing developing world prop up the developed world’s aging welfare states?
Richard Jackson, GAI’s program director, started the conference with an overview presentation that outlined the global demographic trends and identified the main linkages between demographics, the macro economy, and financial markets. Laurence Meyer, vice chairman, Macroeconomic Advisers, moderated that session.
Other sessions were:
Alternative Fiscal Scenarios: Train Wreck or Return to Sanity?
- Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Paul Volcker Chair and director, Center for Geoeconomic Studies, Council on Foreign Relations
- Laurence Kotlikoff, professor of economics, Boston University
Frameworks for Analyzing the Macroeconomic Implications
- Joel Prakken, chairman, Macroeconomic Advisers
- David Weil, professor of economics, Brown University
- Barry Bosworth, senior fellow and Robert Roosa Chair, The Brookings Institution
Will There Be an Asset Meltdown?
- Eric Engen, senior economist, Division of Research and Statistics, Federal Reserve Board
- Robin Brooks, senior economist, Asia and Pacific Department, International Monetary Fund
- Jeremy Siegel, professor of finance, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
The View from the Markets
- William Dudley, advisory director, Goldman Sachs
- Ian Banwell, chief investment officer, Bank of America
- David Kostin, chief sector strategist, Goldman Sachs
Global Aging and Financial Innovation
- Richard Berner, chief U.S. economist, Morgan Stanley
- Steve Zeldes, professor of economics and finance, Columbia University
- Mark Warshawsky, director of retirement research, Watson Wyatt Worldwide
