World Economic Burdens Ours to Remedy

Against dire and uncertain global financial worries, countries and industries that succeed will need to bolster their self confidence against a very different set of issues. This was the message conveyed to the 1,700-plus members of the Professional Liability Underwriting Society who were present to hear Tony Blair, former prime minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, during the organization’s international conference keynote.

“Geopolitically, the 21st century will be very different from the 20th,” he said. “And the 21st century will be less about political ideology—rather cultural and religious ideologies will be our challenge.”

Before Blair discussed what he believes are the more momentous issues facing the world, he framed his speech around the changes taking place in world markets that will have the most likely impact on underwriters, remarking that the G20 Summit is taking place in Paris this week to discuss the Eurozone debt crises, which is now overshadowed by the recent economic referendum in Greece. Reflecting on how those markets have been performing, “it’s difficult for leaders to find their way through all of the different set of challenges they face. Greece is the size of the state of Alabama, yet it is emblematic of the larger issues at hand, and reflects interconnectedness of the world today,” he said.

From his position as prime minister, Blair said that the problem with leadership is that no two problems are alike, no two crises’ are alike, and “you always want problems to be sequentially presented, but they come together,” he told attendees.

During the Q&A portion of his keynote, Blair took a question from Robert Hartwig, economist and president of the Insurance Information Institute, on how the United States, United Kingdom and other allies can create strategies that will allow for successful competition against the Arab world and China.

“We have to understand the financial sector is important part of the economy and we want it to be vibrant, we want it to be innovative, of course it has to be properly synthesized, but it also has to be strong,” he answered. “What troubles me is that it’s not China or these cash-rich countries that will do the damage to our financial sector—we are the ones who are going to do the damage if we are not careful.”

Blair told the audience that people who are still in office continue worry about how to prevent the next financial crisis from happening again.

“I tell them: it’s never like the last one. If you knew now what you could have known then, what would you have done? Right now that is not the issue—the issue now is how you get the economy moving. I think we need to be really careful that we don’t end up saying to the financial sector, insurance sector, banking sector ‘we want you out there lending and being part of the economy, but by the way, we plan to push all this regulation on you.’”

The way to make these sectors strong, added Blair, is to recognize that there will be changes in our regulatory and supervisory systems, but those changes should have the goal of creating a healthy, thriving financial sector at the core.

“This is vital stuff and we want to get it right. And it’s not right to treat the insurance sector and the banking sector the same, because they’re not.”

Acknowledging that the speed of the markets creates uncertainty, instability and anxiety, how world-changing events such as Arab Spring turns out will have a profound impact on how we live our lives.

“The security and stability of the wider world is at stake,” he said. “The world is changing. It won’t just be economic measures, security measures or military measures that will defeat terrorism or political ideologies, because those elements have roots in religion and faith, a dimension you can’t ignore. We have a major role to play here. We can participate with these cultures and push for positive change.”