The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Open Markets Institute convene some of the world’s leading political economic thinkers to discuss how to ensure that all vital, global production systems are built to withstand pandemics, natural disasters, political conflicts, and other shocks.

The Covid-19 pandemic was a blunt reminder of the fragility of some of our most basic human-made systems (production networks, value chains, financial markets, health systems).

Open Markets Institute, in conjunction with the New Approaches to Economic Challenges initiative (NAEC) of the OECD, convened this conference to discuss how to ensure all vital production systems are built to withstand pandemics, natural disasters, political conflicts, and other shocks. The overwhelming consensus? Concentration of power and capacity deeply threatens our ability to cope with crises such as COVID-19 and poses grave dangers to national security.

This conference garnered national headlines when Congressman David Cicilline (D-RI) used his remarks to announce plans to introduce a moratorium on mergers during the pandemic, as part of the next round of stimulus funding. The congressman said that further consolidation would weaken the economy with lasting consequences.

Also featured during the conference are in-depth discussions about the extreme concentration of vital supplies in China, the fragility of complex industrial systems, and the ways in which today’s international supply chains harm millions of workers around the world.

Special Guests:

• Congressman David Cicilline (D-RI), Head of the Antitrust Subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives

• Paul Romer, Nobel Prize winning economist

• Rana Foroohar, Associate Editor of the Financial Times

Also Featured:

• Rohit Chopra, FTC Commissioner


• Paul Tucker, Chair of Systemic Risk Council, former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England


• Michael Masters, Founder of Masters Capital Management, Chair of Better Markets


• Sharan Burrow, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation


• Michael Osterholm, Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, author of Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs


• Cristina Caffarra, Head of European Competition Practice at Charles River Associates


• Doyne Farmer, Director of the Complexity Economics Program at the Institute for New Economic Thinking at Oxford Martin School


• Ganesh Sitaraman, Director of the Program on Law and Government at Vanderbilt Law School, author of The Great Democracy


• Yossi Sheffi, Director of the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics, author of The Power of Resilience


• Christopher Gopal, former Vice President of Worldwide Operations at Dell Computer, member Defense Business Board, author of Supercharging Supply Chains

• Gabriela Ramos, OECD Chief of Staff and Liaison to the G20

• Angel Gurría, OECD Secretary-General

• Barry Lynn, Executive Director, Open Markets Institute

Kickoff, Welcome, and Opening Remarks

Panelists:

Barry Lynn, Gabriela Ramos, and Paul Romer

Panel 2: Did Consolidation Play A Role in the Crisis? Lessons from the Debate on Competition Policy

Panelists:

Rana Forooha, Rohit Chopra, Cristina Caffarra

Conclusion

Gabriela Ramos, Pascal Lamy, Laurence Boone, Paul Tucker, Barry Lynn, and Angel Gurría.

Panel 1: Why Did Our Production Systems Fail? The Lessons of COVID-19 (and Huawei)

Panelists:

Rana Foroohar, Michael Osterholm, Yossi Sheffi, Sharan Burrow and Christopher Gopal

Panel 3: Designing the Systems of Tomorrow – Industrial, Financial, International. Learning from the Lessons

Panelists:

Barry Lynn, Paul Tucker, Ganesh Sitaraman, Doyne Farmer, and Michael Masters