Andrew Ross Sorkin and Zanny Minton Beddoes on Markets, Crashes and The Future of The Global Economy (Part Two)

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**Mia Sarenti** (1:23)
Welcome to Intelligence Squared, where great minds meet. I'm producer Mia Sarenti. What can the crash that shook Wall Street in 1929 teach us about today's age of technological disruption and market speculation? In this episode, we'll return for part two of our recent live event with author, New York Times columnist and CNBC presenter, Andrew Ross Sorkin. Sorkin joined us recently at the Royal Geographical Society to discuss what history can tell us about the future of capitalism. He was in conversation with editor-in-chief of The Economist, Zanny Minton Beddoes.
If you haven't heard part one yet, we recommend jumping back an episode to catch up.
But now let's return to the conversation live at the Royal Geographical Society.

**Zanny Minton Beddoes** (2:07)
I have two reasons to worry, I think, why this time might be different. In 2008, your last book was really how we learned the lessons from 1929 Bernanke really had studied it. He did.

**Andrew Ross Sorkin** (2:20)
That was his dissertation, by the way, at Princeton.

**Zanny Minton Beddoes** (2:22)
We didn't make that mistake again. But this time around, one is, do we have, or does the US, and never mind the UK, we'll come to the UK in a second, do we have the capability to do these bailouts? We're drowning in debt, got a huge, what, the US, 7% of GDP deficit, peacetime, no recession.
Could the US actually do what it did in 2008? Or would there be a complete loss of confidence in the dollar?

**Andrew Ross Sorkin** (2:46)
Well, that's, to me, the biggest worry. And I don't know. I've always thought there's some invisible line in the bond market that turns into a red line at some number, but I thought that 20 years ago.
So, and that line has not been crossed. And the question is, when it comes to sovereign debt, there's always been this question about whether it's all just relative. You know, whether you're the dirtiest of the— Dirtiest shirt in the laundry basket. The dirtiest shirt. You need to be the cleanest shirt— You need to be the cleanest shirt. The cleanest shirt in the laundry basket.

**Zanny Minton Beddoes** (3:15)
The least dirty shirt in the laundry basket.

**Andrew Ross Sorkin** (3:16)
The least dirty shirt in the laundry basket. And so, as long as maybe you're the least dirty shirt in the laundry basket, someone will put the shirt back on.

**Zanny Minton Beddoes** (3:22)
My worry about the UK is that we are fast becoming the dirtiest shirt in the laundry basket.

**Andrew Ross Sorkin** (3:28)
No comment.
I don't know if you're the dirtiest shirt. We're not the least dirty.

**Zanny Minton Beddoes** (3:34)
I mean, we're of the serious, formerly.

**Andrew Ross Sorkin** (3:37)
So no, but those are real worries. And then there's also the political question.

**Zanny Minton Beddoes** (3:41)
Yeah, the other is the ability to cooperate. I mean, the thing that was striking about 2008, which you wrote brilliantly about, but we both lived through, was the fact that the US then led, created the G20 and led a kind of international attempt to cope with the crisis that it has caused. I mean, it did originate in the US, but really led this international cooperation. Can you imagine the current administration leading international cooperation?