GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

The Frontiers of Growth

Have Russia and China proved that authoritarianism and capitalism can go hand-in-hand? Can legality be imported? Are some countries fated to race ahead while others lag? Does culture shape economics? Is unrestricted foreign investment a help or a hindrance to countries seeking to escape from poverty?

Understanding the ingredients of what makes economies grow is one of the most vexing tasks facing policymakers and economists. Across the globe, growth is universally seen as the elixir for the alleviation of human misery. Improved growth rates are also critical to the future of the developed countries, for the cost of backwardness is vast and rises with every new technological advance.

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Rebuilding Haiti From Davos

Kanayo F Nwanze Series: Frontiers of Growth

2010-01-25

When the captains of business and industry meet in Davos for the World Economic Forum this month, the devastation caused by the recent earthquake in Haiti will be near the top of their agenda. It should be, for there is much they can do to help.... read

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Is Bankers’ Pay Really the Root of Financial Evil?

Steven N. Kaplan Series: Frontiers of Growth

2010-01-22

Compensation practices at financial firms have been accused of being a primary cause of the recent global financial crisis, and restricting bankers’ pay is said to be the answer. But, before instituting such invasive regulation, we should examine more closely whether past compensation structures really were at the heart of our recent problems.... read

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Rethinking Poverty Reduction

Jomo Kwame Sundaram Series: Frontiers of Growth

2010-01-15

The United Nations’ biennial Report on the World Social Situation (RWSS 2010), entitled Rethinking Poverty, makes a compelling case for rethinking poverty-measurement and poverty-reduction efforts. But there will be no real poverty eradication without equitable and sustainable economic development, which deregulated markets have proved unable to deliver on their own.... read

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Breaking the Bankers?

Ronald Gilson Series: Frontiers of Growth

2009-12-22

The plot of the morality play set in motion by the United Kingdom’s announcement of a 50% tax on bankers’ bonuses has now taken form. And it is a play that holds an important lesson about how politicians are managing – or mismanaging – demands for financial reform.... read

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The Road to Prosperity and Sound Markets

Edmund S. Phelps Series: Frontiers of Growth

2009-12-08

BERLIN – The near global financial meltdown and ensuing downturns left the Anglo-Saxon nations pondering what they should do both to set their economies on a path toward recovery and to avoid a similar crisis in the future. Some recommendations by members of Columbia University’s Center on Capitalism and Society were sent to last April’s G20 meeting. To create more jobs in the economy, I proposed that governments establish a class of banks that would acquire the lost art of financing investment projects in the business sector – the type of financing the old “merchant” banks did so well a century ago. I also renewed my support for a subsidy to companies for their ongoing employment of low-wage workers. (Singapore adopted this idea with enviable results.)... read

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The Return of Monetarism

Sylvester Eijffinger and Edin Mujagic Series: Frontiers of Growth

2009-12-08

Over the last 30 years or so, many central bankers supposed that all they needed to do was keep their sights fixed on price stability. But we now know that they must also attend to financial stability, and that their ability to set interest rates cannot be used to achieve both aims simultaneously.... read

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The Elusive Search for Global Financial Rules

Lorenzo Bini Smaghi Series: Frontiers of Growth

2009-11-30

If the financial crisis is global, it is said, then the solution must be global: an international financial system that works better. But if the goal is better crisis prevention by preventing the accumulation of large global imbalances, proposals that would make IMF financing easier and weaken its surveillance powers will do more harm than good.... read

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The Next Industrial Revolution

Lars G. Josefsson, Jamshyd N. Godrej, Peter A. Darbee and Steve Holliday Series: Frontiers of Growth

2009-11-04

NEW YORK – A new global deal to tackle climate change will not only be good for business, it is crucial to achieve sustainable growth for the global economy.... read

Comments: 0 Recommended: 1 Read: 5012

Death by Renminbi

Thomas I. Palley Series: Frontiers of Growth

2009-10-30

In a normal world, the dollar’s weakening would be welcome, as it would help the US come to grips with its unsustainable trade deficit. But, in a world where China links its currency to the dollar at an under-valued parity, the dollar’s depreciation risks major global economic damage that would further complicate recovery from the current worldwide recession.... read

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Renewed Hope for Renewable Energy	Kandeh K. Yumkella
A decade ago, renewable energy was viewed as an unwelcome offspring of fossil fuels. But, with mounting concerns about climate change and volatility in oil and other fossil-fuel prices, renewables are finally becoming a serious proposition.... read

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Rethinking Poverty Reduction

Jomo Kwame Sundaram Series: Frontiers of Growth

2010-01-15

Comments: 2 Recommended: 0 Read: 3182

Modernizing the Middle East’s Economies

Prince El Hassan bin Talal Series: Frontiers of Growth

2009-08-19

Most Middle Eastern countries missed the first industrial revolution based on coal and steam power, and the second industrial revolution based on oil and the internal combustion engine. While this has spared them the burden of declining industries, they need policies aimed at joining the third industrial revolution - the post-carbon economy of renewable energy and fuel-cell cars.... read

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No Licenses to Kill

George Soros Series: Frontiers of Growth

2009-06-16

Because the financial collapse that began last year originated from within, it destroyed the prevailing view that financial markets are self-correcting. But, having gone too far in deregulating markets, we must resist a natural tendency to overcompensate. ... read

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Completing the G-20’s Agenda

Roman Frydman and Michael D. Goldberg Series: Frontiers of Growth

2009-04-02

In calling for measures to “guard against systemic risk,” the G-20 summit recognized the need to regulate the entire financial system, not just individual institutions. Unfortunately, contemporary economic theory, which presumes perfect price discovery in asset markets, discourages policymakers from addressing the role of asset-price swings in managing systemic risk.... read

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The Storm in Sub-Saharan Africa

Dominique Strauss-Kahn Series: Frontiers of Growth

2009-02-04

As the world struggles with the most serious financial turmoil of the post-war era, attention has focused on the advanced and emerging-market economies most immediately affected. But the impact on poor countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, is far more severe.... read

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The Dollar Wars Return

Harold James Series: Frontiers of Growth

2003-09-18

Faced by uncertain re-election prospects, and worried about job losses, US President George W. Bush has begun to blame other countries, sending his Treasury Secretary to demand that they raise their exchange rates in order to make foreign goods more expensive for American consumers. That was John Snow's mission on his recent trip to China, but his goal was nothing new. Two of Snow's predecessors, John Connally and James Baker, followed a similar quest for politically desirable exchange rates. ... read

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Democracy Comes Second

Guido Tabellini Series: Frontiers of Growth

2005-09-06

Democracy is slowly spreading around the world. From the Middle East to Latin America and Asia, many autocracies are taking gradual steps towards more democratic and accountable forms of government, or have become fully-fledged and well functioning democracies. The US administration is determined to consolidate political freedoms in many developing countries under its sphere of influence; indeed, expansion of democracy has become a cornerstone of American foreign policy. ... read

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Learning Globalization From Football

Branko Milanovic Series: Frontiers of Growth

2006-02-06

Football is not only the world’s most popular sport, but also probably its most globalized profession. It is inconceivable that Brazilian, Cameroonian, or Japanese doctors, computer scientists, blue-collar workers, or bank tellers could move from one country to another as easily as Brazilian, Cameroonian, or Japanese football players do. ... read

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Subsidies that Save

Edmund S. Phelps Series: Frontiers of Growth

2006-05-01

Was France’s recent wave of protests against an amendment that would have increased employers’ freedom to fire young workers a blessing in disguise? To defuse the protests, President Jacques Chirac was forced to withdraw the provision, and instead has proposed hiring subsidies as a way to reduce youth joblessness. A related proposal for targeted wage subsidies is being floated in Germany.... read

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The Trade-and-Aid Myth

Dani Rodrik Series: Frontiers of Growth

2005-08-03

Trade and aid have become international buzzwords. More aid (including debt relief) and greater access to rich countries’ markets for poor countries’ products now appears to be at the top of the global agenda. Indeed, the debate nowadays is not about what to do, but how much to do, and how fast.... read

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The Quest for Investment

Jean-Michel Severino Series: Frontiers of Growth

2006-02-15

The Hong Kong meeting of the Doha Round of trade negotiations has left a palpable sense of frustration in the developing world over the slow pace of agricultural liberalization agreed to by the rich countries. It may thus appear naive and counterproductive to raise the bar and suggest that we need to go beyond trade and move investment to the top of our priority list. Yet can any “development round” worthy of its name ignore this challenge?... read

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Let the Doha Round Fail

Dani Rodrik Series: Frontiers of Growth

2005-11-21

Imagine that the world’s trade ministers simply walk away from their forthcoming Hong Kong meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) with this simple declaration: “We failed to reach an agreement; we’ll try to do better next time.” This would bring the so-called Doha “Development” Round to an unsuccessful conclusion, but it would be no disaster. ... read

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Getting Serious About Global Poverty

Rodrigo de Rato Series: Frontiers of Growth

2006-01-30

Institutions and governments, like people, make bold resolutions at the beginning of every year. But, for the millions who face the crushing burden of poverty, mere proclamations that help is on the way are not enough to create jobs or foster development. This year, the international community must move decisively from pledges to action in the effort to reduce poverty. What will this require?... read

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Loving America’s Deficits

Kenneth Rogoff Series: Frontiers of Growth

2005-01-06

With the weak dollar hanging like the sword of Damocles over the global economy, almost everyone laments America’s spendthrift habits. But did it ever occur to anybody how hard Americans must work to make everyone else look good? ... read

Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 19464

The False Promise of Financial Liberalization	Dani Rodrik
Something is amiss in the world of finance. The problem is not another financial meltdown in an emerging market, with the predictable contagion that engulfs neighboring countries. Even the most exposed countries handled the last round of financial shocks, in May and June 2006, relatively comfortably. Instead, the problem this time around is one that relatively calm times have helped reveal: the predicted benefits of financial globalization are nowhere to be seen. ... read
Worlds Apart	Jomo K.S.
Macroeconomic policies, financial globalization, and changes in labor market institutions have exacerbated inequality in recent decades, not only in income and wealth, but also in access to education, healthcare, social protection, as well as in political participation and influence. Even within countries experiencing rapid economic growth, an array of factors, exacerbated by tremendous demographic changes, has conspired to transmit inequality of knowledge, social responsibility, and life chances from one generation to the next.... read

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