We’ve just returned from Rio de Janeiro, where the Levy Institute held a conference cosponsored by the Multidisciplinary Institute for Development and Strategies (MINDS), supported by the Ford Foundation. The two day conference dealt with global financial governance, financial reregulation, and development challenges in a Minskyan context — a lot of discussion of the regulation of global capital flows, Brazil’s economic prospects, and debate about whether China’s economy represents a development model to be imitated or a ticking time bomb of financial instability; along with the usual focus on banking regulation and reform.

Paul McCulley, former PIMCO director and phrase-coiner (“Minsky moment” and “shadow banking”), delivered the keynote. Speakers and panelists included academics, financial market practitioners, and former and current government officials (Paulo Nogueira Batista, who sits on the Executive Board of the IMF, gave a fascinating inside glimpse at the coalitions and dynamics at the Fund and talked about how delays in implementing reforms designed to give emerging economies more sway in the structures of global financial governance risk creating a crisis of legitimacy).

The full program, including speakers’ powerpoint presentations, is available. Audio clips can be accessed here (video may also be available in the near future).

The next Minsky conference will be held in Athens, November 8-9.