Business Forum to Discuss 'Rebuilding the Global Financial System'

by Jaime Bates, student newswriter, (254) 710-6805

The McBride Center for International Business at Baylor University will host the Global Business Forum from Monday, Feb. 23, to Friday, Feb. 27 in the Cashion Academic Building of the Hankamer School of Business on the Baylor campus. The forum will include prominent international speakers, film presentations and panel discussions by international students. All lectures and activities will focus on the theme of "Rebuilding the Global Financial System."

Monday
The forum will begin Monday with a video presentation of the "Ascent of Money" from 2:30 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. in the Blume Conference Room. The documentary, an adaptation of Niall Ferguson's book, focuses on the financial history of the world.

Tuesday
A panel of Baylor international students from Mexico, France, India, Kenya and Vietnam will discuss "Young People in the Global Financial System" from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Cashion 303.

Wednesday
On Wednesday, Dr. Jeffery Frieden, professor of government at Harvard University will be the keynote speaker lecturing on "Capitalism on the Brink" at 7:30 p.m. in the Banquet Room on the 5th floor of Cashion. Frieden is the author of several books including Banking on the World: The Politics of American International Finance; Debt, Development, and Democracy: Modern Political Economy and Latin America and his most recent book, Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century. He holds a doctorate from Columbia University and specializes in the politics of international monetary and financial relations.

Thursday
Thursday, Feb. 26, will begin with a video teleconference with U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards at 8:30 a.m. in the Blume Conference Room. Edwards is a senior member on the House Budget Committee and the Appropriations Committee. Edwards also serves on the Financial Services Appropriations Subcommittee and the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee. He graduated magna cum laude from Texas A&M University with a bachelor's degree in economics. Edwards also has served on the Texas senate.

In a two part presentation on "Global Markets: Changing the Rules," Part 1 will be held at 9:30 a.m. with Randall Dodd, a senior financial sector expert in the monetary and capital markets department of the International Monetary Fund, and David Andrew Singer, assistant professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Part 2 of "Global Markets: Changing the Rules" will be held at 11 a.m. with Rui Li, a research associate in the Institute of Finance and Trade Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. Also included in the discussion will be Arvind Mahajan, professor of Finance at Texas A&M University and Stormy-Annika Mildner, a Research Fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs and a lecturer at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin.

Thursday's luncheon keynote address on "Financial Risk: A Global Survey" will be given at 12:30 p.m. by Hans Belcsak. Belcsak is president of S.J. Rundt & Associates, Inc., a country risk and corporate intelligence consultancy headquartered in New York City. He also is a member of the International Advisory Council of the American Management Association. Registration is required for this luncheon.

Kelly Kemp, business development officer in the southwest regional office of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, and Rick Schulze, the Texas and Louisiana Regional Manager for International Trade Programs will discuss "Public Support for Exporters at 3:30 p.m.

Friday
The forum will conclude with a video presentation of "Money Never Sleeps" at 2:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 27 in the Blume conference room.

"The topic for this year's forum was chosen after realizing how much was going on with the financial crisis," Dr. Joe McKinney, an economics professor at Baylor said. "The goal is to help people better understand what is going on in the global economy so that they can better understand current events."

This will be the third year for the Global Business Forum. For more information on the forum and speakers, visit www.baylor.edu/business/international or call McKinney at (254) 710-6141. Although most of the events are free and open to the public, registration is also available at the web site for the events that require it.