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36 Seattle U. L. Rev. 1187 (2012-2013)
Dinner Parties during Lost Decades: On the Difficulties of Rethinking Financial Markets, Fostering Elite Consensus, and Renewing Political Economy

handle is hein.journals/sealr36 and id is 1203 raw text is: Dinner Parties During Lost Decades: On the Difficulties of Rethinking Financial Markets, Fostering Elite Consensus, and Renewing Political Economy David A. Westbrook' I. INTRODUCTION This Article addresses two groups of problems that ought to be un- derstood in relation to one another. On the one hand, there is ample rea- son to be concerned about the economy in the North Atlantic countries. On the other hand, and keeping in mind that history is a slaughter bench and economics is dismal, one might reasonably worry about how we, in societies with modem economic and political structures, may go about collectively thinking, discussing, and even deciding on what to do about our economy.' This Article has three movements. In Part II, I discuss conceptual obstacles to forming the new elite consensus that rethinking the role of financial markets requires.2 To produce policy reform, it is not enough to have new ideas; the ideas must be understood, adopted, and acted upon by people. Policy reform is thus always a function of conversations. In Part III, I discuss some possible ways the elite consensus might be formed. I have tried to put these thoughts into practice: The World Economic Association (WEA)3 held a global, virtual conference on financial market reform and asked me to design and host the forthcoming Rethinking Financial Markets: Social Capitalism, Economies of Money, Floyd H. & Hilda L. Hurst Faculty Scholar and Professor of Law, State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo. I thank Chuck O'Kelley and Marc Moore for hosting the Berle IV Conference in London, the immediate occasion for these remarks. I also thank Jack Schlegel, as usual, for reading well, and Scan O'Brian for quick research assistance. This Article is largely a reflection on a virtual conference held by the World Economics Association. It has been a pleasure working with that team: Grazia Letto-Giles, Stuart Birks, Ed Fullbrook, Jake McMurchie, Nick Kraft, and Richard Whelan. 1. See G.W.F. HEGEL, LECTURES ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY, at XX (J. Sibrce trans., George Bell & Sons 1902) (1837); see also Thomas Carlyle, Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question, FRASER'S MAG. FOR TOWN & COUNTRY 531 (1849). 2. See SAMUEL J. ELDERSVELD, POLITICAL ELITES IN MODERN SOCIETIES: EMPIRICAL RE- SEARCH AND DEMOCRATIC THEORY (1989). 3. See WORLD ECON. ASS'N, http://www.worideconomicsassociation.org (last visited Oct. 20, 2012). 1187

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