15:30 - George Daly, Dean, McDonough School of Business, welcomes the audience to International Finance Panel.

15:38 - He introduces Martin Halusa, CEO of Apax Partners Worldwide.

15:40 - He introduces Katherine Kinney, President and co-chief operating officer of the NYSE Group.

15:42 - Introduces Ernest-Antoine Seilliere, Chief of Supervisory Board of Wendel Investments.

15:43 - He introduces Richard Frank, Derby’s Chief Executive Officer.

15:45 - Mr. Halusa: We invest in companies, big companies.

15:46 - For me Private Equity is nothing else than another market.

15:49 - Right now the main key is that there’s no debt for big transactions.

15:50 - It swings back and forth, back and forth.

15:52 - Kinney: we don’t feel it (Finance) exotic at all.

15: 53 - We have 4,000 companies all around.

15:53 - We trade stocks, we have a full geographic representation.

15:54 - We expect to be one of the largest markets in the world.

15:55 - Nowadays, every security is worth, every security has a price.

15:56 - I think more transparency and more disclosure will be needed.

15:57 - As Martin said, today companies are being challenged in many ways, they also have to play global.

16:01 - Seilliere: before Private Equity or the new fronts you see coming up, you had new companies and there it was, now you have funds and a lot of people wanting to buy.

16:02 - Nobody knows very well Hedge funds and they seem to see more danger, kind of a strange mixture.

16:05 - Hedge Funds can be very good or very bad, my point of view is very mixed on the subject.

16:07 - Richard Frank: what my firm is doing more broadly is very good for you.

16:08 - We are in a very different field.

16:10 - (Hedge Funds) they have come in a very interesting world.

16:12 - What are they? In the simplest form they are a variation that represent reserves, for import- export, a lot of them the result of trade.

16:14 - The numbers are hard to get, that’s a big size.

16:14 - China is going to be a major supplier.

16:15 - I think we’ll see a few new topics that we would never have thought of some few years ago.

16:18 - Halusa: for me all of this political influence is a very big mystery.

16:20 - Kinney: it depends on the industry, that is a question that has not been answered in our country. It is not conclusive.

16:21 - Different investments, and different topics.

16:22 - Daly: a lot of people are talking about subprime crisis.

16:23 - So do we have to worry about people with mortgages?

16:23 - Halusa: my personal view of that is that part of it is compensation of these people.

16:25 - Daly: Any other comment?

16:26 - Kinney: Wall Street has this effect to turn Success into Excess.

16:27 - Money is out there but people see that prices are going lower and they are just going to wait to see how lower they go.

16:28 - Seilliere: Financial world people do not really understand it.

16:29 - They attack the system (capitalism).

16:30 - George G. Daly welcomes questions from the public.

Live Blogging - International Security, Risk and Opportunities

14:52 - Anthony Lake, National Security Advisor, and Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University

14: 55 - Lake: “When Bob told me what the topic (Globalization and Competitiveness) was nothing came into my mind”.

14:56 - The audience applauds at Mr. Lake’s good comments and jokes

14: 58 - “Competition: world population has grown, doubled since I was young. And people have been able, anyway, to adapt to it.”

14:58 - “Prices rose 40% globally last year.”

15:01 - “Climate change, greater competition, divesting consequences”.

15:03 - “What’s the role of Globalization in all of this? I would say it’s not too clear, yet.”

15:06 - “200 million people every year move around the world in search of a better life”.

15:07 - “Political will to act together: salvation could be there.”

15:09 - “When I came into the White House at my desk I had a direct line to all the allied countries.”

15:11 - “It is very hard for diplomats to talk about their own countries so it makes it difficult to negotiate”.

15:13 - “It’s important as long as our government works together that will help each other in talking to each other to be able to develop an alliance”.

15:16 - “If America is ready to share responsibility, will Europeans be ready to share this responsibility (Global Warming)?”

15:17 - “Are you ready (Europeans) to share responsibility in leadership?”

15:18 - “Global Warming, Terrorism, Poverty - we have to make enough progress on those issues”.

15:18 - (if not) “I know, for sure, that this world will become a place that I do not want my grandchildren to see”.

15:19 - Anthony Lake opened the session to questions.

Live Blogging - International Relations Panel

11:32 - Robert Gallucci, Dean, School of Foreign Service; John C. Kornblum, Former US Ambassador to Germany and Chairman of Lazard Freres in Germany; Robert Kimmitt, Deputy Secretary U.S. Treasury; Charles Powell, Deputy Director, Research and Analysis at Real Instituto El Cano, are being presented.

11:39 – Gallucci: things that seem to be the main troubles for American people: North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, Middle East, Cuba, questions of religion, evolution, Europe (Freedom Fries).

11:41 - Working with Europe won’t go away. It has been ups and downs.

11: 43 – Kimmitt: Financial - Economic Motor, that’s what I want to focus on.

11: 45 - There were very important changes in Europe in the middle 90’s such as: German Unification, Soviet Union dissolution.

11: 47 - Free trade between Europe and the United States proposal in 2006.

11:48 - Why don’t we focus on convergence? And I’m talking about free commerce.

11:50 – U.S. and Europe’s investment dialogue

11:52 - Regardless of what happens in the U.S. and Europe elections, transatlantic dialogue must continue.

11: 54 - Europe should look very, very closely at this relationship.

11: 55 - Kornblum, It’s been a long time since I’ve been here in Europe.

11:56 - I agree with what President Aznar said this morning.

11: 57 - The transatlantic relationship we are talking about is not something new, it comes at least from the 1970’s.

11: 58 – Over the last 5 or 6 years this is the worst crisis we have had in the transatlantic relationship, but if we go to history this fluctuates during time.

12:00 - There’s another very important issue: globalization: corporations.

12:03 - Immense explosion of economic strength and creativity, as President Aznar said.

12:06 - Global Dynamics: information technology, spreading throughout the economic markets.

12:07 - It’s more important than terrorism, than global change, it’s a phenomenon itself (new technology)

12:10- No longer try to define Europe nor America, you rather integrate them; not to try to know which is better

12:11 - The end of the Cold War doesn’t mean the end of the need of military.

12:15 – Powell: I spent plenty of my time attending seminars on transatlantic relations.

12:15 - I carry both American and European passports

12:17 - We do have to acknowledge there are major differences between Europe and the U.S.

12:19 - The fact is that there are new risks that unify us. Specific dangers, such as, for example: Iran.

12:21 - 85% of Spaniards want Spain and the States to work together.

12:24 - Soft power is good, but it has to be combined with hard power.

12:26 - We are facing a new constellation of political leadership: Merkel in Germany, Sarkozy in France.

12:28 - After the elections of 2004 we all know Spanish-United States relations took a bad turn.

12:29 - But neither this nor the Aznar - Bush honeymoon changed the fact that Spain continues to be the sixth-largest economic relationship with the States

12:31 - Even though McCain would be in The White House and Zapatero in La Moncloa let’s hope it doesn’t change this.

12:33 – Kimmitt: Europe and the U.S. will continue to compete.

12:35 - Kornblum: the number of people that feel like losers is growing and is already too many.

12:38 - We, the West, need to sit down and get it right.

12:39 – Gallucci: what we have to ask ourselves is: What do we want to do together?

12:41 – Spain’s roll in the European Community is in its relationship with Latin America.

12:42 - It is becoming difficult to Spain to get the European Union interested in Latin America.

12:44 - Questions and answers within the audience starts.