PFI Talks

One of the world's top monetary historians Michael D. Bordo, Professor at Rutgers University, sees alarming parallels between today and the catastrophic 1930s.KEY POINTSThe "Wily Coyote Moment"· Markets running on air over a fiscal cliff - haven't looked down yet· Sudden crisis could hit when confidence breaksFed Under Attack· Trump pressuring Fed just like Nixon did in the 1970s (led to runaway inflation)· Attempt to fire Lisa Cook threatens central bank independencePerfect Storm Brewing· Unsustainable debt + protectionism + potential tech bubble· Globalization reversing like it did 100 years ago· "All the bad policies from the 1930s are coming back"What Must Be Done· Keep central banks independent and credible· Focus only on price stability· Remember: nationalism and protectionism led to disaster before"I find the current era extremely worrisome. In some ways it reminds me of the 1930s."Michael D. Bordo is a Board of Governors Professor of Economics and director of the Center for Monetary and Financial History at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey.Interview conducted by Jiri Zatloukal, Prague Finance Institute

John H. Cochrane is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is also a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and an adjunct scholar of the CATO Institute. Before joining Hoover, Cochrane was a Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, and earlier at its Economics Department. Cochrane earned a bachelor’s degree in physics at MIT and his PhD in economics at the University of California at Berkeley. He was a junior staff economist on the Council of Economic Advisers (1982–83).Cochrane’s recent publications include the book Asset Pricing and articles on dynamics in stock and bond markets, the volatility of exchange rates, the term structure of interest rates, the returns to venture capital, liquidity premiums in stock prices, the relation between stock prices and business cycles, and option pricing when investors can’t perfectly hedge. His monetary economics publications include articles on the relationship between deficits and inflation, the effects of monetary policy, and the fiscal theory of the price level. He has also written articles on macroeconomics, health insurance, time-series econometrics, financial regulation, and other topics. He was a coauthor of The Squam Lake Report. His Asset Pricing PhD class is available online via Coursera. Cochrane frequently contributes editorial opinion essays to the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg.com, and other publications. He maintains the Grumpy Economist blog.Leoš Rousek, the Head Of Corporate Communications at PPF Group (https://www.ppf.eu/en) and contributor of PFI Talks, talked with John Cochrane.

Historian and investment strategist Edward Chancellor draws parallels between the current surge in tech giants — the Magnificent 7 — and past speculative bubbles such as the 19th-century British railway mania and the 1990s internet boom. He warns of overvaluation fuelled by massive investments in artificial intelligence.Explore how rising interest rates, a soaring national debt – what Chancellor calls the "debt supercycle" – and the Federal Reserve’s repeated crisis interventions may be setting the stage for a more severe financial crash.In this episode of PFI Talks, conducted by Jiří Zatloukal, Chancellor also discusses the contrasting impacts on U.S. residential versus commercial real estate, the rise in gold prices as a market “Armageddon” bet, and the economic consequences of deglobalization accelerated by tariffs and shifting capital flows under the Trump administration.

Štěpán Drábek je mladý český ekonom a popularizátor vědy. Působí jako makroekonomický analytik v Prague Finance Institute. Je autorem monografie o inflaci, která byla oceněna Učenou společností ČR. Nyní pracuje na překladu největšího díla nobelisty F. A. Hayeka The Constitution of Liberty.

William N. Goetzmann is the Edwin J. Beinecke Professor of Finance and Management Studies and Faculty Director of the International Center for Finance at the Yale School of Management. He is an expert on a diverse range of investments. His past work includes studies of stock market predictability, hedge funds and survival biases in performance measurement. His current research focuses on alternative investing, factor investing, behavioral finance and the art market. Professor Goetzmann has written and co-authored a number of books, including Modern Portfolio Theory and Investment Analysis (Wiley, 2014), The Origins of Value: The Financial Innovations that Created Modern Capital Markets (Oxford, 2005), The Great Mirror of Folly: Finance, Culture and the Crash of 1720 (Yale, 2013) and most recently, Money Changes Everything: How Finance Made Civilization Possible (Princeton, 2016).Leoš Rousek, the Head Of Corporate Communications at PPF Group (https://www.ppf.eu/en) and contributor of PFI Talks, talked with William Goetzmann.

Renowned economist Branko Milanović joins Prague Finance Institute to discuss the end of neoliberal globalization, the rise of China as both a geopolitical and economic rival, and the global reshuffling of income. He explores how China’s growing middle class is overtaking parts of the Western population and what that means for domestic stability in rich democracies. From shifting forms of capitalism to the "citizenship premium," Milanović offers deep insights into the transformation of the global economic order.The interview was conducted by Jiří Zatloukal, Financial Journalist.

In this in-depth interview from the PFI Talks series by the Prague Finance Institute, renowned economist Maurice Obstfeld — Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, former Chief Economist of the IMF, and former adviser to President Obama — issues a stark warning: America’s rising debt, eroding fiscal discipline, and political gridlock are creating systemic risks far beyond its borders.As the world continues to rely on the dollar and U.S. Treasury markets for stability, Obstfeld explains why this "exorbitant privilege" may no longer be sustainable. From the weakening foundations of the dollar’s dominance to the global consequences of U.S. policy paralysis, Obstfeld paints a sobering picture: “We are in the eye of the storm.”What you’ll learn in this interview:• Why U.S. fiscal policy threatens global financial stability• How the dollar’s safe-haven status could be undermined• The dangers of political dysfunction and growing inequality• Whether the world is quietly preparing to move away from the dollar system• What policy changes are urgently needed to avoid a future crisisJiri Zatloukal, a financial journalist and contributor to PFI Talks, talked with Maurice Obsfeld.

Kenneth Rogoff is Maurits C. Boas Professor at Harvard University, and former chief economist at the IMF. His influential 2009 book with Carmen Reinhart, This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, shows the remarkable quantitative similarities across time and countries in the roots and aftermath of debt and financial crises. Rogoff is also known for his pioneering work on central bank independence, and on exchange rates. He is co-author of the widely-used graduate text, Foundations of International Macroeconomics. His 2016 book The Curse of Cash looks at the past, present and future of currency from standardized coinage to crypto-currencies. His monthly syndicated column on global economic issues is published in over 50 countries. Rogoff’s 2025 book Our Dollar, Your Problem: An Insider’s View of Seven Turbulent Decades of Global Finance and the Road Ahead offers a sweeping view of the post-war rise of the dollar, the challenges the rest of the world has in dealing with it, and how this experience can help inform the contours of the evolving new global financial system. Rogoff is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has long ranked among the top dozen most cited economists, and is an international grandmaster of chess.Leoš Rousek, the Head Of Corporate Communications at PPF Group (https://www.ppf.eu/en) and contributor of PFI Talks, talked with Kenneth Rogoff.

Anat R. Admati is the George G.C. Parker Professor of Finance and Economics at Stanford Graduate School of Business and a senior fellow at Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. Her disciplinary interests lie in the interaction of business, law and policy, and specifically governance and accountability mechanisms in the private sector and in government. Admati is also Faculty Director of the Corporations and Society Initiative at the GSB, whose mission is to raise awareness and increase understanding of the complex interactions among people, corporations and governments.Since 2010, Admati has been engaged in the policy debates around the globe related to financial regulations and corporate accountability. Her insights have been featured in media outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, the Financial Times, CNN, and PBS. In 2014, Admati was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world and by Foreign Policy Magazine as among 100 global thinkers.Admati has written academic papers on information dissemination in financial markets, portfolio management, financial contracting, corporate governance, and banking. She is the co-author, with Martin Hellwig, of the award-winning and highly acclaimed book, The Bankers’ New Clothes: What’s Wrong with Banking and What to Do about It (Princeton Press 2013). A 10th anniversary update will be published in 2023.Admati holds BSc from the Hebrew University, MA, MPhil, and PhD from Yale University and an honorary doctorate from University of Zurich. She is a fellow of the Econometric Society, the recipient of multiple fellowships, research grants, and paper recognition, and is a past board member of the American Finance Association. She has served on a number of editorial boards and is a former member of the FDIC’s Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee, the CFTC’s Market Risk Advisory Committee, and visiting scholar at the International Monetary Fund.Leoš Rousek, the Head Of Corporate Communications at PPF Group (https://www.ppf.eu/en) and contributor of PFI Talks, talked with Anat Admati.

Rafał Brzoska is the founder and CEO of InPost, a logistics company that operates over over 25 000 parcel lockers throughout Poland, constituting the largest business structure of this type in the country Brzoska started out by founding Integer Group in 1999, which distributed leaflets. Seven years later, he started InPost, which operates automated lockers that allow customers to drop off and collect packages anytime of the day. The company went public in Amsterdam in January 2021, raising over $3 billion in its IPO. In 2023, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta by President Andrzej Duda at the Belweder Palace for his "outstanding contributions to the development of Polish economy as well as his social and charity activism".

Andre is the Advisor to the Board at Zelof & Partners LLP which is a client-focused advisory and investment company, specializing in the fixed-income asset class, based in London. Before that he was the Chief Economist and the Head of the FX and Interest Rates, and Sovereign Credit Desk at the Olayan Group. Prior to the Olayan Group, he was trained as a macro economist and as a central bank watcher at the Central Bank of Canada. Andre will serve in the position of the Chief Economist of the Prague Finance Institute from October 2024. Andre holds a master’s degree in international finance and economics from the University of Montreal and is a CFA Charterholder.

General David H. Petraeus (US Army, Ret.) (New York) is a Partner at KKR and Chairman of the KKR Global Institute, which he established in May 2013. He is also a member of the boards of directors of Optiv and OneStream, a Strategic Advisor for Sempra and Advanced Navigation, a personal venture investor, an academic, and the co-author (with British historian Andrew Roberts) of the New York Times best selling book "Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine." Prior to joining KKR, General Petraeus served over 37 years in the U.S. military, culminating his career with six consecutive commands as a general officer, five of which were in combat, including command of the Surge in Iraq, command of U.S. Central Command, and command of coalition forces in Afghanistan. Following retirement from the military and after Senate confirmation by a vote of 94-0, he served as Director of the CIA during a period of significant achievements in the global war on terror, the establishment of important Agency digital initiatives, and substantial investments in the Agency’s most important asset, its human capital. General Petraeus graduated with distinction from the U.S. Military Academy and is the only person in Army history to be the top graduate of both the demanding U.S. Army Ranger School and the U.S. Army’s year-long Command and General Staff College. He also earned a Ph.D. in international relations and economics from Princeton University. General Petraeus taught both subjects at the U.S. Military Academy in the mid-1980s, he was a Visiting Professor of Public Policy at the Honors College of the City University of New York from 2013 through 2016, and he was for 6 years a Judge Widney Professor at the University of Southern California and a Senior Fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center. He is currently the Kissinger Fellow at Yale University’s Jackson School, Co-Chairman of the Global Advisory Council of the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, Senior Vice President of the Royal United Services Institute, and a Member of the Trilateral Commission, Council on Foreign Relations, and the Aspen Strategy Group, as well as a member of the boards of the Atlantic Council, the Institute for the Study of War, and over a dozen veterans service organizations. He is also a LinkedIn Top Voice. Over the past 20 years, General Petraeus was named one of America’s 25 Best Leaders by U.S. News and World Report, a runner-up for Time magazine’s Person of the Year, the Daily Telegraph man of the year, twice a Time 100 selectee, Princeton University’s Madison Medalist, and one of Foreign Policy magazine’s top 100 public intellectuals in three different years. General Petraeus has earned numerous awards and decorations, including four Defense Distinguished Service Medals, the Bronze Star Medal for Valor, two NATO Meritorious Service Medals, the Combat Action Badge, the Ranger Tab, and Master Parachutist and Air Assault Badges. He has also been decorated by 14 foreign countries and he is believed to be the only person who, while in uniform, threw out the first pitch of a World Series game and did the coin toss for a Super Bowl. 

Daron Acemoglu is an esteemed economist and author, currently serving as the Killian Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His main areas of research include political economy, economic development and growth, network economics, human capital and technological innovation. Much of his work studies the political, economic and social origins of the differences in economic development across societies. He has also explored the institutional and political evolution of nations and the role that technology plays in shaping economic growth. Acemoglu’s track-record of addressing conventional economic principles in a highly original and astute fashion makes him one of the best regarded thought leaders in the field. Acemoglu is probably best known for his book - Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (co-authored with James Robinson), which made the New York Times Bestseller List in 2012. His other books include: Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (also with James Robinson), which was awarded the Woodrow Wilson and the William Riker prizes, Introduction to Modern Economic Growth and Principles of Economics (co-authored with David Laibson and John List) and The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty (with James Robinson).

Kyla Scanlon is the founder of a financial education company and a creator. She writes a weekly newsletter, makes YouTube videos, hosts the “Let’s Appreciate” podcast, and posts almost daily short form videos about the economy and markets. She majored in finance, economics, and data analytics. Upon graduation, she was a CAP Associate at Capital Group. She then joined an education startup to spin out their investment education arm before starting her own company. She is currently writing an introductory book on economics and the Federal Reserve. She has worked with Bloomberg, New York Magazine, the Financial Times, New York Magazine, and the New York Times, as well as many other major publications. Her main goal is to conduct human-centric economic analysis to help connect the dots between what is happening and why it is happening. She has spoken at universities, including MIT and UC Berkeley, as well several conferences. Just recently she published a new book „In This Economy? How Money & Markets Really Work“.

Bozidar Djelic is a Managing Director, and Head of Lazard for Central and Eastern Europe, CIS (ex-Soviet Union), and Turkey. Mr. Djelic advises countries, corporations, and financial institutions on their development programs, financing options, and strategic transactions. He advised the Polish e-commerce giant, Allegro, on its IPO, the Spanish utility Naturgy on the sale of its electricity distribution assets in Moldova, the Serbian electricity incumbent EPS on its strategic options, a Chinese infrastructure player for a highway concession in Romania, and the Ukrainian Naftogaz on the disposal of its Egyptian onshore oil fields. He advised a Bulgarian telco on its sale, a Serbian bank on its privatization, the Croatian government on its oil assets, a Turkish construction Group for its inaugural Eurobond issuance, a French bank for the sale of its Slovene and North Macedonian subsidiaries, the Polish air transport PGL/LOT for the takeover of Condor holiday carrier, a Baltic food retailer on its CEE expansion, a Ukrainian agribusiness company on its sale, a PE fund for the disposal of its cable assets in Albania. Mr. Djelic has more than 25 years of experience in the public and private sectors across transition countries, including eight years as a senior member of the Serbian government. He was Deputy Prime Minister between 2007 and 2011, during which time he led negotiations for the country's entry into the European Union and absorption of EU funds. He negotiated the macroeconomic and investment program of the country with all major international financial institutions and other creditors. During this time he also served as Minister of Science and Technological Development. In 2012 he ran for President of the London-based EBRD and is a well-known personality across transition countries. Between 2013 and 2016 he was an independent non-executive director of Bank of Georgia. From 2001 to 2004, he was Minister of Finance and Economy of Serbia. He led a far-reaching multi-year stabilization and restructuring program, and deep banking sector reforms. He concluded a 66%, two-step, debt reduction deal with the Paris Club, and negotiated with the London Club and other multilateral and bilateral creditors. He also led the privatization of the tobacco, banking, and insurance sectors. He was the Chairman of the Belgrade Stock Exchange from 2001 to 2004. He helped secure funding for the Iron Gate hydropower station revitalization. Between 2005 and 2007, Mr. Djelic served as Credit Agricole's Director for Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union and was the head of its Ukrainian (Index Bank) and Serbian (Meridian) subsidiaries. From 1993 to 2001, he was a Partner of McKinsey & Company in the Paris and Silicon Valley offices, specializing in financial institutions, media, and technology. Between 1990 and 1993, he lived in Warsaw and Moscow, advising the Polish and the Russian governments on their macro and privatization programs and the setting up of the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Mr. Djelic holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School, an MPA from the J.F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and an MA in Economics from the School of High Social Studies in Paris. He is a graduate of the French business school HEC and the Institute of Political Studies (summa cum laude).

Paul Krugman is a Neo-Keynesian economist, Nobel laureate, academic, author, and media columnist, known for his work on international trade theory and economic geography. Considered one of the world's most influential economists, Krugman is renowned for redefining existing theories of international trade and either founding or co-founding several new disciplines in international economics, from New Trade Theory (NTT) and New Economic Geography (NEG) to models of financial crises and exchange rate movements. In 2008, Krugman was the sole recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity.

Mojmír Hampl je již více než dva roky členem Národní rozpočtové rady, jejímž úkolem je strážit české veřejné finance. Od července 2022 tomuto nezávislému orgánu předsedá. Mezi lety 2006 až 2018 byl součástí bankovní rady České národní banky, z toho více než deset let v pozici viceguvernéra. V minulosti působil v ČNB také jako analytik. Před nástupem do NRR pracoval jako ředitel služeb pro finanční sektor v poradenské společnosti KPMG. Jako jeden z předních českých ekonomů často zasedá v odborných poradních orgánech, jako je například NERV, pravidelně přednáší na vysokých školách a publikuje.

Michal Kuděj je absolventem Vysoké školy ekonomické v Praze. Specializuje na firemní finance a restrukturalizační procesy. V oblasti firemních financí, fúzí, akvizic se pohybuje od roku 1991. Je zakládajícím partnerem poradenské společnosti Tarpan Partners, v níž působí od roku 2010. Působí také na katedře strategie Fakulty podnikohospodářské Vysoké školy ekonomické jako odborný asistent a člen vědecké rady Centra restrukturalizace a insolvence Harryho Pollaka. V expertní pracovní skupině Ministerstva spravedlnosti se rovněž podílí na implementaci evropské směrnice o preventivní restrukturalizace do národní právní úpravy. Je autorem řady odborných publikací.

Maros founded LitFin in 2018 after spending several years as a business director of a successful property development company in Manchester, the United Kingdom. As LitFin’s managing partner, Maros handles its day-to-day activities, business strategy and investments. Lately, his primary focus revolves around LitFin SICAV, a recently established fully-regulated fund, perhaps the first of its kind within the EU area focused on the litigation finance industry. In 2019, Maros was honored as part of Forbes' 30 Under 30, a testament to his entrepreneurial skills and influence in the business world. Furthermore, Maros is a Chambers-ranked individual for 2023 in the EU. Maros' education includes graduating with distinction in law, which he studied in Manchester (the UK) and Lund (Sweden). His international educational background has played a crucial role in shaping his career and business strategies. In addition to his professional accomplishments, Maros enjoys a variety of personal interests. He is known for his love of swimming and traveling, however, most of all he cherishes spending weekends at his countryside mansion nestled in the hills, where he can relax and unwind from his busy work schedule.

Perry Mehrling is a Professor of International Political Economy at the Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University, where he teaches courses on the economics of money and banking, the history of money and finance, and international money. Perry is the author of The New Lombard Street: How the Fed became the dealer of last resort (Princeton 2011), Fischer Black and the Revolutionary Idea of Finance (Wiley 2005), and The Money Interest and the Public Interest (Harvard 1997). He currently serves on the Academic Council of the Institute for New Economic Thinking (New York) and the Committee on Global Thought (Columbia University), and has served as visiting professor at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, University of Nice, Paris X (Nanterre), and the Sloan School of Management, MIT. He has a BA from Harvard College, an MSc from London School of Economics, and a PhD from Harvard University. Professor Mehrling’s areas of expertise include money and banking, political economy, history of monetary and financial thought, and global money. He also teaches the popular "Economics of Money and Banking" MOOC on the Coursera website.