End of Ponzi Prosperity

The Global Financial Crisis (“GFC”) is not a single crisis but rather a series of events, such as the Global Sovereign Crisis (“GSC”), through which the global economy and financial system re-calibrates itself. 

The “recovery” is based not on dealing with fundamental problems but “botox economics” - an official policy of “extend and pretend” as policy makers everywhere seek a “cheap” money and spending fuelled return to the past. It’s key weapon in “financial repression” as wealth in transferred from savers to borrowers and authorities manipulate markets.

It is the end of “extreme money” and the “ponzi prosperity” it helped create. A period of aggressive financialisation entailing a rapid build-up of debt and risk is ending. It is likely to presage a period of low growth and high volatility. This point of history has taken almost 30+ years to be reached and a quick and easy solution is likely to elusive.

This presentation explores how the global economy and financial engine is resetting and the challenges ahead for each and every one. Maybe we are all going to end up a lot poorer!

Satyajit Das is a former banker, with a global reputation in derivatives, risk management, and capital markets. In a career spanning over 30 years, he has worked on the “sell side” (Commonwealth Bank of Australia; CitiGroup; Merrill Lynch) and the “buy side” (TNT Group). He now acts as a consultant to banks, investors, corporation and regulators in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia.

Das presciently anticipated many aspects of the Global Financial Crisis in 2006, the sovereign debt crisis in 2010, the slowdowns in China and Australia and has continued to provide insightful commentary on the evolution of the crisis. 

He was featured in Charles Ferguson’s 2010 Oscar winning documentary Inside Job, the 2012 PBS Frontline series Money, Power & Wall Street  and a 2009 BBC TV documentary – Tricks with Risk. He is a frequent contributor and interviewee, being widely quoted in the financial press in the USA, Canada, UK/ Europe, South Africa, Australia, NZ and Asia.

He is the author of Traders, Guns & Money: Knowns and Unknowns in the Dazzling World of Derivatives – Revised Edition (2006 and 2010), an insider’s account of derivatives trading and the financial products business filled with black humour and satire. The book has been described by the Financial Times, London as " fascinating reading … explaining not only the high-minded theory behind the business and its various products but the sometimes sordid reality of the industry".

His latest book is Extreme Money: The Masters of the Universe and the Cult of Risk (2011) described by economist Nouriel Roubini as: “A true insider’s devastating analysis of the financial alchemy of the last 30 years and its destructive consequences.  With his intimate first-hand knowledge, Das takes a knife to global finance and financiers to reveal its inner workings without fear or favour.”

He is also the author of a number of key reference works on derivatives and risk management including Swaps/ Financial Derivatives Library – Third Edition(2005) (a 4 volume 4,200 page reference work for practitioners on derivatives) and Credit Derivatives, CDOs and Structured Credit Products –Third Edition (2005).