Peter Conti-Brown

The U.S. economy faces a set of structural pressures — debt, demographics, technological disruption, geopolitical fragmentation, political instability — that will define the next decade. This talk puts today’s headlines in historical context and offers a framework for thinking about what comes next.

Fed Chair Jay Powell retires from central banking after fighting a pandemic, a president, a banking crisis, and the worst inflation since the 1970s. He leaves the Fed in a place of intellectual and policy uncertainty at a time of dramatic upheaval. This talk draws on deep historical expertise to explain how the Fed works in good times, how it works in bad, and where it is likely to go during a period of global political and economic instability.

The 2024 presidential election ushered in many changes for politics, economics, and global affairs. None is more dramatic than the changes afoot in the way the US thinks about bank risks and who should manage them. This talk focuses on what this change is about, what opportunities it opens up for banks and other financial institutions, and how banks can future-proof their growth strategies for a time when the political tide turns again.

Stablecoins have officially arrived within the perimeter of financial institutions. What does this mean and how will money transform as a result? What will international fragmentation mean for global payments? How will artificial intelligence and large-language models in particular change the way that consumers transact within the economy? This session peers through the uncertainty to map a near- and long-term trajectory for how businesses and consumers will think about money and finance as a result of the technological upheaval that is unfolding around the globe.

Financial institutions and other organizations face overwhelming compliance costs for a system of anti-money laundering that no sensible person can defend. This session discusses how changes in the AML/KYC systems can revolutionize compliance costs and customer identification in ways that permits financial institutions to choose their risks and map their business plans in ways that can prevent money laundering (and compliance headaches) without becoming stuck in compliance costs without end.