The global financial crisis, which started in mid-2007, forced the entire world to rethink its recent economic history, the policies adopted as well as the inherent institutional and regulatory imperfections. This thinking over might lead to a reassessment of both economic performance and development perspectives.

From the beginning of 2000s the global economy, including most of developed, developing and transition countries, experienced rapid economic growth and even bigger expansion of trade, decreasing share of population living in deep poverty combined with record-low inflation and exceptional calm on financial markets. With the global financial crisis this ‘gold’ era of prosperity came definitely to its end in 2008. Was this prosperity just a by-product of accommodative monetary policies of major central banks or were there deeper endogenous roots for this extraordinary performance (for example, effects of market-oriented reforms or global trade liberalization)? Will emerging markets be able to easily return to a high-rate growth trajectory or will they be required to launch a new round of policy reforms?

These and other fundamental questions will be discussed during CASE 2009 International Conference which will include 6 thematic sessions and 3 keynote addresses. Each session will have one or two speakers and two to four commentators. Speakers and commentators will represent the highest level of international expertise in the relevant topics.

The conference will gather 200-250 participants from various countries, mostly from Europe, Asia, Middle East and North America. The conference will be addressed to researchers, policy experts and analysts, mostly from the academia, economic policy research institutes, international organizations and financial institutions. A limited number of invitations will be also addressed to business community, policymakers and media. An international audience implies that papers, comments and discussion will focus on global and European perspective rather than on any particularly country.

Please visit "The Return of History: From Consensus to Crisis" Conference website for further details; including an agenda of the event, names of speakers and commentators, a list of Conference donors, as well as information regarding registration and logisitics.