Mark Carney

Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of England, shares unique insights into global and domestic monetary policy and economic trends. Carney explains how we have come to esteem financial value over human value and have gone from market economies to market societies, contributing to the modern day crises of credit, COVID-19, and climate change. Renowned for his focus on digital currencies, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and climate action, Carney examines the shortcomings and challenges of the market in the past decade which he argues has led to rampant, public distrust and the need for fundamental change. Carney provides leaders, companies, and countries with tangible action plans to transform the value of the market back into the value of humanity.

Mark Carney shares a bold, urgent argument on the misplacement of value in financial markets and how we can and need to maximize value for the many, not few. In this speech, he answers the questions: What is value? How does the way we assess value both shape our values and constrain our choices? And how do the valuations of markets affect the values of our society?

With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing us to confront how we value health, wealth and opportunity, Carney explores how we maintain importance of the economic well-being of the nation-state while continuing to value human life and discusses the surprising differences in the financial value put on a human life in different nations. He argues that this reductionist approach fails to consider deeper thinking about the worth of human existence.

Mark Carney focuses on climate change, arguing that the roots of our environmental emergency lie in a deeper crisis of values. How can we create an ecosystem in which society’s values broaden the market’s conceptions of value? Carney observes how individual creativity and market dynamism can be channeled to achieve broader social goals including inclusive growth and environmental sustainability. Carney challenges that threats currently posed by climate change pale in comparison to what might come in the form of political and financial instability, food and water insecurity, and effects on property and migration. He discusses how the financial sector can consider the physical, liability, and transition risks that climate change poses for our current system while sharing what might be done to mitigate them.

Taking audiences back to the financial crisis of 2008, the worst financial crisis to affect the world since the Great Depression, Mark Carney argues that a deeper crisis in our values that created ethically fragile markets was the real culprit of 2008. The crisis ended a time when disconnected bankers and the financial sector labeled themselves as “Masters of the Universe” – now, more than a decade later, Carney shares his findings on how they have changed their ways, and how we can continue to make progress into a safer, simpler, and fairer financial system that can withstand risks we don’t anticipate.

With financial crises occurring historically once a decade, Carney elucidates how organizations and citizens alike must remain vigilant to break the destructive cycle of financial history and resist the “three lies of finance” in order to avoid the next crisis.

Drawing on his 13 year experience as G7 central bank governor and unique perspective on the accelerating sustainable and digital re-wirings of our economies, Mark Carney offers his outlook for near term policies and long-term prosperity in the global economy.