Satyajit Das Travels from NSW
Fee Range: POA
Satyajit Das's Biography
Satyajit
Das is an internationally respected expert in finance, with over 35 years'
experience in capital markets. He has worked for the 'sell side' (with banks
such as Commonwealth Bank, CitiBank and Merrill Lynch), the 'buy side' (as
Treasurer of the TNT Group) and now acts as a consultant advising banks,
investors, corporations and central banks throughout the world.
Das is the author of many highly regarded books on derivatives and risk
management, which are regarded as standard reference works for professional
traders.
In 2006, he published the international bestseller Traders, Guns & Money:
Knowns and Unknowns in the Dazzling World of Derivatives, a satirical insider's
account of derivatives trading. In Traders and a series of 2006 speeches - The
Coming Credit Crash - he provided a highly prescient insight into the structure
and risk of the world financial system exposing the problems that subsequently
became apparent.
In 2010, his article 'The Year of Wishful Thinking', Satyajit Das anticipated
the sovereign debt crisis. That year, in another article titled 'The China
Syndrome' and a follow-up 2012 piece 'All Feasts Must End', he drew attention
to the unsustainable nature of China's economic success and the risk of
slowdown in growth. In 2011 paper 'Financial Fetishes', he drew attention to the
ineffectiveness of policy options, especially the increasing dependence of
monetary measures such as quantitative easing and the difficulty of reversing
such actions. In the same year, he identified Australia's fragile prospects and
looming slowdown and challenges.
His latest book is Extreme Money: Masters of the Universe and the Cult of Risk
(2011), which was described by Nouriel Roubini, Professor of Economics at NYU
Stern School of Business and Chairman of Roubini Global Economics as 'a true
insider's devastating analysis of the financial alchemy of the last 30 years
and its destructive consequences. With his intimate first-hand knowledge, Das
takes a knife to global finance and financiers to reveal its inner workings
without fear or favour.'
Satyajit Das was
featured in Charles Ferguson's 2010 Oscar-winning documentary Inside Job, the
2012 PBS Frontline series Money, Power & Wall Street and 2009 BBC TV
documentary Tricks with Risk. He is a frequent interviewee and widely quoted in
the financial press globally. Das was honoured as one of the Most Influential
50 - The Bankers and Investors Who Move Markets by Bloomberg.
He has been a featured speaker at financial conferences throughout the world as
well as at the Sydney Writers Festival, Melbourne Writers Festival, Adelaide
Festival of Ideas and Sydney's Festival of Dangerous Ideas.
Speaking Topics Include
Finance and business audiences
Presentations
looking at major issues and the broad economic outlook
End
of Growth and Turning Japanese! The risk of a world with low or no growth for a
prolonged period.
No
Way Out! and Money in the Time of Cholera: Current policies (budget deficits,
build-up of government debt, low zero or zero interest rates, quantitative
easing), their prospects and risks, and their impact on businesses and
investors.
Banana
Republics! The sovereign debt crisis in the developed world and options for
dealing with it.
'When
Harry Met Sally' Investing! The impact of current government and central bank
policies on investments, and the required adjustment to a period of low returns
and high volatility.
'Juche'
World - The Drift to Autarky: The pressures to move to closed economies and
their impact on trade and capital flows, as well as effects on governments and
businesses.
Presentations
looking at specific countries
Phantom
Menace and Rope-A-Dope Economics: US debt problems and America's economic
outlook.
Chronicle
of a (European) Death Foretold, and Germany's Götterdämmerung? The European
debt crisis and prospects for a resolution.
Broken
Arrows: Japan's 20 years of stagnation and the prospects of the initiatives of
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seeking to restore the Japanese economy.
Great
Southern Province of China and The Nauru Solution: Australia's economic
prospects and challenges, post the end of the mining investment boom.
Presentations looking at emerging markets
All
Feasts Must End and China Syndrome: The rise of China as an economic power, its
current challenges, and its implications for Australia and the world.
Emerging
Market Crisis Redux! The rise of and nascent problems in the emerging BRICS
(Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) economies, outlining the
rewards and risks for businesses and investors.
Whose
Century Is It Anyway? The concept of an Asian century, analysing whether China
and other emerging nations will displace American economic and financial
dominance in the foreseeable future.
Presentations
looking at issues confronting specific financial services sectors
Voodoo
Banking: The drivers that allowed banks to become larger and more profitable
and the need for altered strategies to succeed in the new economic and
financial environment.
Death
of Fund Management: The rise of funds managers and challenges facing the
industry in a period of low returns, volatile prices and changing regulations.
Risk
is a Four Letter Word: Changes in sources and nature of risks and current
problems in how risk is measured and managed.
Wrong
Questions, Wrong Answers! A critical examination of the post-Global Financial
Crisis regulatory framework and specific new rules, considering their likely
impact on financial services firms and whether they actually make the financial
system safer.
General Audiences
Presentations
looking at issues confronting ordinary men and women and their concerns
Ponzi
Prosperity and How Did I Get Here? How the last 25 years have been an unusual
period of unparalleled prosperity, which is not repeatable, requiring lifestyle
and financial adjustments.
The
Dream is Over: Whether the holy trinity of middle class prosperity (a good job,
a nice house and a comfortable, secure retirement) are sustainable or now at
risk.
Generation
Wars: How the deteriorating economic outlook, limits of non-renewable resources
and environment change have forced policy makers to use extend and pretend
strategies, targeting short term benefits while penalizing future generations,
who now face reduced prospects.
End
of Trust or Democracy Deficit: How the global economic crisis and efforts to
resolve it have led to the sacrifice of trust, in money, key institutions,
between countries as well as between policy makers and the population.