The economist Raghuram Rajan foresaw the global financial crisis – and is now recognizing cracks in the system again. Where they are, why so many people are turning to authoritarian regimes and what can be done about it.
Raghuram Rajan, 60, was chief economist at the International Monetary Fund when he rocked the big US Federal Reserve party in Jackson Hole in 2005. The economist from India warned at the time of a major crash on the stock markets because banks were doing too risky transactions with derivatives. His colleagues laughed at him and were a little annoyed because he disturbed unity. Two years later the great financial crisis began. Rajan, a professor at the University of Chicago since 1995 and former central bank governor of India, was a guest at the investor conference of the investment firm Lupus Alpha in Frankfurt.