Though the name of the event was “M&A Titans at NYU,” given recent headlines, it might have just as well been called “How Our Economy Turned into the Titanic.” With a heavy-hitting panel that included Stephen Friedman, the chairman of Stone Point Capital, chairman of the board of directors of Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the retired chairman of Goldman, Sachs & Co.; Martin Lipton '55, a founding partner of the business law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and Joseph Rice, III, the founder and chairman of the private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, the discussion inevitably became an examination of the global financial crisis. The panelists expressed concern that the process of economic recovery will be a slow one, with Lipton saying bluntly, “I’m afraid it will take three to five years.”
Moderated by Brett Cole, author of the recently published book M&A Titans: The Pioneers Who Shaped Wall Street’s Mergers and Acquisitions Industry, the evening, which was sponsored by the Pollack Center for Law & Business, covered all aspects of the crisis, from human psychology to poorly structured corporate boards. Though opinions differed on the cause of the crisis, all the panelists agreed on the remedy: a major overhaul of the regulatory process.
Read the New York Times article about the event
Read the Reuters article about the event
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