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Sony Kapoor uses vivid metaphors, accessible language and a rich set of anecdotes from his own experience in the financial services sector to deliver an informative and entertaining speech on the financial crisis and the fundamental conundrums at the heart of finance. This speech was delivered in San Francisco at the Momentum Young Leaders conference in September 2009.

Interviews with the Real News network on the crisis and the state of the economy

This is the first in a series of interviews on the response to the financial crisis given by Re-Define Managing Director Sony Kapoor to the Real News Network in Washington DC in November 2009. In this Sony speaks about the distributional consequences of the crisis, the potential benefits of implementing a Tobin-like tax, the distortions causes by tax and regulatory havens and the urgent need to address the inequality between income and capital gains tax.

This is the second in a series of interviews on the response to the financial crisis given by Re-Define Managing Director Sony Kapoor to the Real News Network in Washington DC in November 2009. In this Sony speaks about the urgent need to take action against tax havens, the desirability of financial transaction taxes, the problems caused by having a nationally governed internationally active financial system, the need to bolster the quality of governance in international institutions and the inherent conundrums at the heart of democracies.

This is the third in a series of interviews on the response to the financial crisis given by Re-Define Managing Director Sony Kapoor to the Real News Network in Washington DC in November 2009. In this Sony speaks about the fragility of the recovery, the urgent need to address unemployment, reduce ineqaulity and boost real wages, the need to simplify regulation and the problems caused by individually rational policy which are collectively disastrous.

This is the fourth in a series of interviews on the response to the financial crisis given by Re-Define Managing Director Sony Kapoor to the Real News Network in Washington DC in November 2009. In this Sony speaks about the problems of managing incentives at banks, the need to break up Goldman Sachs, the need for a mpore competitive financial system and offers some ideas on how best to take the reform agenda forward.

Re-Define Managing Director Sony Kapoor and Fellow Deepak Tayal feature in a German TV Documentary about the Financial Crisis and Re-Define's work. The crew followed Sony Kapoor to San Francisco and Brussels and then flew to New York to cover Deepak Tayal.

Interviews on the financial crisis with the Real News network

This is the first in a series of seven comprehensive interviews on the financial crisis given by Re-Define Managing Director Sony Kapoor to the Real News Network in the United States. In this first section, Sony speaks briefly of his own experience in the financial services industry and how that set him on the path to setting up Re-Define. Sony also starts to go into some detail as to the triggers for the financial crash.

This is the second in a series of seven comprehensive interviews on the financial crisis given by Re-Define Managing Director Sony Kapoor to the Real News Network in the United States. In this second section, Sony speaks about the incentive structure in the financial system which makes every institution herd into similar investment and risk positions which tend to get rewarded by financial markets. Its like a game of musical chairs where everyone moves to the same music thinking that when the music stops they will be able to find a seat. The problem is that some institution is always left standing and if it is large or interconnected enough as Lehman brothers was, it can fall on top of those that have managed to find seats and cause serious damage to them as Lehman's failure did to the financial system

This is the third in a series of seven comprehensive interviews on the financial crisis given by Re-Define Managing Director Sony Kapoor to the Real News Network in the United States. In this third second section, Sony explains how the financial system left to itself has an embedded incentive to become ever more complex and how having higher volatility increases profits at large investment banks.

This is the fourth in a series of seven comprehensive interviews on the financial crisis given by Re-Define Managing Director Sony Kapoor to the Real News Network in the United States. In this, Sony here explains how the secrecy offered by tax havens, combines with the opacity of derivatives to enable financial institutions to facilitate tax avoidance on their own and on their client's behalf, extract fatter margins from their customers and fool regulators.

This is the fifth in a series of seven comprehensive interviews on the financial crisis given by Re-Define Managing Director Sony Kapoor to the Real News Network in the United States. In this, Sony talks about the principles of simplicity, competitiveness, diversity and fairness that should guide efforts to reform finance. The current discussion, while broadly moving in the right direction, does not quite go far enough.

This is the sixth in a series of seven comprehensive interviews on the financial crisis given by Re-Define Managing Director Sony Kapoor to the Real News Network in the United States. In this, Sony speaks about the role of central banks in helping avoid the worst of the recession, the fact that the US Fed does not have a governance structure that is consistent with its public mandate, the serious problems created by the role of the US dollar as the de facto reserve currency and the urgent need for a new international reserve currency.

This is the last in a series of seven comprehensive interviews on the financial crisis given by Re-Define Managing Director Sony Kapoor to the Real News Network in the United States. In this, Sony speaks about how the prospects for a long term sustained economic recovery are bad, the fragility of the world economy and the potential problems of debt overhangs.

Re-Define Managing Director Sony Kapoor being interviewed by the Young Turk radio in New York on the subject of the Obama administration's proposals on financial regulation

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