IQ2 debate: Was our financial system better prepared for pandemic than the 2008 crisis?

Lehman Brothers
The headquarters of Lehman Brothers in New York.
Hiroko Masuike | Getty Images 2008

More than a decade ago, Lehman Brothers collapsed, and the world witnessed one of the worst financial crises in global history. In January 2019, Intelligence Squared U.S. hosted a debate on the motion, “10 years after the global financial crisis, the system is safer,” to assess how resilient markets would be in the future.

With the emergence of a global pandemic, this has put the debater’s arguments to the ultimate test — whose claims have been vindicated by this unprecedented event?

John Donvan is joined by two IQ2 alumni – a top Obama administration economic advisor, Jason Furman, and chair of the editorial board and editor-at-large (U.S.) of the Financial Times, Gillian Tett — to debate whether the global financial system was better prepared for this pandemic after the 2008 financial crash.

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