Years after its onset, there is still plenty to discuss about the financial crisis, as the latest instalment of the Zukunft im Turm series demonstrated in May 2016.
Renowned German economist Professor Martin Hellwig gave his opinions on how far banks should take responsibility for the crisis. Was there no alternative to the multi-billion-euro bail-outs? What are the benefits of the banking union? And how might the financial sector develop in the future? These questions will occupy us for a long time after this evening.
Martin Hellwig, Executive Director of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, is one of Germany’s most highly regarded economists. He served as Chairman of the Advisory Scientific Committee of the European Systemic Risk Board, one of the new European institutions set up in the wake of the crisis.
“The restructuring funds are like a fire brigade that uses watering cans,” Hellwig says. “I’m not worried about a new crisis, I’m more frightened that we won’t get out of the current mire.”
