FCC club lunch with Stephen KING

Speaker: Stephen KING
Group Chief Economist & Global Head of Economics and Asset Allocation Research, HSBC
Topic: Losing control: the emerging threats to western prosperity

As the economic giants of Asia and elsewhere have awakened, Western leaders have increasingly struggled to maintain economic stability. The international financial crisis which began in 2007 is but one result of the emerging nations’ increased gravitational pull. Mr. KING suggests that the decades ahead will see a major redistribution of wealth and power across the globe that will force consumers in the U.S. and Europe to stop living beyond their means.

The tide of money washing in from emerging nations has already fuelled the recent property bubble in the West, while new patterns of trade have left the West increasingly dependent on risky financial services. Unless things change drastically, Mr. KING argues, the increasing power of emerging markets, when coupled with poor internal regulation and an increasingly anachronistic system of global governance, will result in greater instability and income inequality, coupled with the risk of a major dollar decline. And as Western populations age and emerging economies develop further, the social and political consequences may be alarming to citizens who have grown accustomed to living in prosperity.

Stephen KING is HSBC’s group chief economist and the Bank’s global head of economics and asset allocation research. He is directly responsible for HSBC’s global economic coverage and co-ordinates the research of HSBC economists all over the world. He has given written and oral evidence on the economic effects of globalisation to the House of Commons Treasury Committee and the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee. In 2007, he became a member of the European Central Bank Shadow Council, and most recently became a member of the Financial Times Economist’s Forum. Stephen’s first book, Losing Control, is scheduled to be published by Yale University Press in May 2010. The book will examine the impact of the emerging nations on western economic prosperity. Stephen studied economics and philosophy at Oxford.