Conveners: Ralf Ahrens (ZZF Potsdam) / Christian Marx (IfZ Munich)
This conference is generously supported by Fritz Thyssen Stiftung für Wissenschaftsförderung
Since the 1970s, the financial sector has developed into a prime example of economic globalization due to exceptional growth and a rapid increase in international capital flows. Government actors have often felt overwhelmed by developments such as the collapse of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates, the return of high inflation rates and the experience of stagflation, against which Keynesian economic policy measures appeared powerless. One response was to liberalize the banking sector and capital movements with the aim of unleashing market forces in international competition. Focusing on the financial sector, we want to examine how the relationship between state, economy, and society has changed since the 1970s. Ultimately, only such an integrative, internationally comparative contemporary history of financial markets can clarify the extent to which we are actually dealing with an 'age of finance' that continues to the present day.
The conference brings together national and international experts at different career levels to present the latest research on the history of banking and the securities business, public finance and tax policy, as well as the social history of financialization.
Conference Program
Monday, 11 May 2026
13.00 | Welcome and Introduction
Gabriele Metzler (Potsdam)
Ralf Ahrens / Christian Marx (Potsdam / Munich)
13.30 – 15.00
Panel 1: Transformations of Banking
Chair: Juliane Clegg (Stuttgart)
- Duncan Needham (Cambridge): The Transformation of British Banking from the 1970s to the Global Financial Crisis
- Aaron Freedman (New York): Wall Street Against Deregulation: Balancing Economic Stability and Financialization in the 1980s
- Arthur Michelet (Lausanne): The Multinationalization of Swiss Big Banks and the End of 'Low-Profile' Banking (1970s-80s)
15.00 – 15.30 | Coffee Break
15.30 – 17.00
Panel 2: Globalization and Integration of Finance
Chair: Rüdiger Graf (Potsdam)
- Aled Davies (Cambridge): The Bank of England, the 1973 Oil Shock, and the Re-globalization of Finance
- Alice Trinkle (Berlin): From Socialist Reforms to Financial Expansion: Chinese Banking in Eastern Europe
- Mareike Beck (Warwick): USD Hegemony: The Role of the Eurodollar Markets in European Integration
17.00 – 17.30 | Coffee Break
17.30 – 19.00
Panel 3: Securities Markets: Innovation and Integration
Chair: Ralf Ahrens (Potsdam)
- Alexis Drach (Paris): Stock Exchanges and European Integration from the 1960s to the 1980s: A European Dimension to the Age of Finance?
- Marco Bertilorenzi (Padova): Regulatory Fragmentation and Financial Innovation in the Commodity Futures Markets (1970s–1990s)
- Margarita Fajardo (New York/Oxford): The Age of Finance from the Global South: The Brazilian State and the Rise of Coffee Futures
19.30 Conference Dinner at ZZF
Tuesday, 12 May 2026
9.00 – 10.00
Panel 4: The Politics of Debt and Taxes
Chair: Stefanie Middendorf (Berlin)
- Falco Drießen (Munich/Basel): Germany in International Debt Politics: A Struggle Between Financial, Foreign, Security, and Economic Policies in the 1980s
- Benoît Majerus (Luxembourg): Coding Tax Havens. Legal Intermediaries as Heavily Regulated Actors in the Age of Finance
10.00 – 10.30 | Coffee Break
10.30 – 12.00
Panel 5: Austerity and Financialization
Chair: Christian Marx (Munich)
- Thaisa Cäsar (Heidelberg): Back to a Balanced Budget? West Germany's Federal Ministry of Finance and the Public Budget Consolidation of the 1970s and 1980s
- Charlotte Nilsson (Lund): From People's Home to People's Shares: Financialization and the Swedish Welfare State
- Jacob Bohé (Bielefeld): The Financialization of German Real Estate from the Perspective of Valuation
12.00 – 12.30
Concluding Remarks
12.30 – 13.30 | Lunch
