The near collapse of critical parts of the global financial system has produced an unprecedented economic meltdown in virtually every part of the globe. The financial landscape has changed with icons of finance such as Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers no longer existing. The tremors from Wall Street are now felt around the world, with serious repercussions for those below the poverty line. With the global economy now entering the worst recession since the 1930s, what lessons can we learn from the past in order to anticipate unfolding events in 2009? Former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy from 1993 to 1995, Bradford De Long is a renowned economic historian who will draw lessons from past financial crises and highlight possible outcomes going forward in 2009.

Professor J Brad DeLong is an expert on international economics and finance, with an impressive portfolio of academic research and public service. He offers global, regional and national economic overviews, informed discussion of trends in inflation, trade, currencies and other economic issues affecting business, and insights into economic policy.

He served in the US government as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy from 1993 to 1995, where he worked on the Clinton Administration's 1993 budget, on the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, on the North American Free Trade Agreement, on macroeconomic policy, on the unsuccessful health care reform effort, and on many other issues.

DeLong has written on the evolution and functioning of the U.S. and other nations' stock markets, the dynamics of long-run economic growth, the making of economic policy, the changing nature of the American business cycle, and the history of economic thought.

J Bradford DeLong is a professor of economics at the University of California Berkeley, where he chairs the international political economy major. A research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, he also was Danziger Associate Professor of economics at Harvard University and John M Olin Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.