You are at: Home > News/Analysis, Page 2 ('08) | Previous | Next Posted: 3-7 Nov 08 The view from Israel--Q&A with fmr IMF No.2 and now Israel's central bank head: Stanley Fischer may be thousands of miles from the epicenter of Wall St's meltdown, but few people are better posi- tioned to understand it.The fmr MIT economics professor supervised Ben Bernanke's PhD thesis on the Great Depression. Later, Fischer worked as the IMF No.2 during the Asian financial crisis, News- week, 1 Nov 08 Biggest ever brainstorming on global agenda ends with call for 'fun- damental reboot': The world needs to examine the basic operating systems that drive its economies, markets & societies and aim for a 'reboot' to establish a fresh platform based on renewed confidence & trust. That was the overarching message from 700 thought leaders from biz, govt, academia and civil society at the end of the inaugural Summit on the Global Agenda in Dubai, World Econ Forum, 9 Nov 08 (Highlights) Elections and the democracy challenge: Elections in developing na- tions have often become synonymous with democracy, partly be- cause of the simplistic reasoning of intl donors. Elections are highly technical & political, & the 2 elements are interdependent. A techni- cally proficient election conducted in a negative political climate will be useless. Likewise, an environment of political goodwill will not salvage a technically chaotic election. Electoral work is just one com- ponent of democracy building and should be well coordinated with other elements, such as support to civil society & mass media, id21 insights, Aug '08 33 nations have 'alarming' levels of hunger: Acc to the Global Hunger Index, the Democratic Republic of Congo scored the worst on the index with the most severe level of hunger, followed by Eritrea, Bur- undi, Niger, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Ethiopia, Intl Food Policy Res Inst, 14 Oct 08 (Factsheet | Exec sum) All 22 nations in BBC poll prefer Obama to McCain: Obama is pre- ferred by a 4-to-1 margin on average in an intl poll. In 17 of the 22 nations surveyed, the most common view is that, if Obama is elected pres, US's relations with the rest of the world are likely to get better. In total, 23,531 citizens in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Nigeria, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Turkey, UAE, UK and US were polled, World Public Opinion, 9 Sep 08 A global development agenda for the Pres.-Elect--Q&A with Ctr pres Birdsall: Q-With the US economy facing shaky times, financial meltdown, rising food & energy costs, & wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, why should Americans & the next pres spend any time at all thinking about development?, Ctr Global Dev, 22 Aug 08 (White House and the world) Michael Porter: Why America needs an economic strategy--In this time of crisis, Washington has focused on the immediate & the short term. Lost are the more basic questions we really need to worry about.Neither candidate has put forward anything close to a strategy; rather, each has presented a set of disconnected policy proposals with political appeal. Both parties contribute to the problem by ap- proaching the economy with long-held ideologies & policy positions, many of which no longer fit with today's reality, says Harvard strat- egy guru, BusinessWeek, 30 Oct 08 Obama 52% victory forecast by Yale professor's economy model: A forecasting model that has called the top vote-getter in the last 3 pres races predicts a victory for Obama. Ray Fair's equation takes into ac- count which party currently holds the White House & for how long, whether the incumbent is running, growth, & inflation. One variable he calls 'good news' is the no. of quarters in the last 4 years in which GDP growth exceeded 4.2%, Bloomberg, 10 Oct 08 (Book | Yale | Model) {A final update predicts shares of the 2-party vote at 51.9% for Democrats & 48.1% for Republicans, for a spread of 3.8%--Ed.} Electronic traders give edge to Obama, Democrats: In the campaign's final days, traders on the Iowa Electronic Markets continue to favor Obama & Democrats to win the vote. As of 4 Nov, on the pres 'vote share' market, an Obama contract was selling at 53.5 cents, while McCain's was selling at 47 cents. Those figures mean that traders believe Obama will receive 53.5% of the 2-party popular vote, while McCain will receive 47%. On the 'winner take all' market, an Obama contract was selling for 92 cents, while McCain's was selling for 10.7 cents. The numbers mean that traders believe there is a 92% chance that Obama will win the popular vote, while McCain has a 10.7% chance, U Iowa, 30 Oct 08 Joseph Stiglitz: Reversal of fortune -- How much worse will the US economy get? Describing how ideology, special-interest pressure, populist politics, and sheer incompetence have left the economy on life support, a Nobel laureate puts forth a clear, commonsense plan to reverse the economic follies, Vanity Fair, Nov '08 John McCain: I will reform our broken institutions in Washington & on Wall Street--As American families bear the brunt of an economic crisis caused by the corruption & greed of Wash. and Wall St, it is clear that the next pres will need to restore the confidence of our citi- zens in the economy & their govt. You don't have to hope that things will change when you vote for me. You know change will come. We will put country first - ahead of party, Wash. and Wall St; and Barack Obama: We have the chance to finally stand up and say, 'Enough is enough'--The era of greed & irresponsibility on Wall St & in Wash. has led to a financial crisis as serious as any we've faced since the Great Depression. They said they wanted to let the market run free, but instead they let it run wild - and they put at risk the jobs, life savings & econ security of families across the country. We did not arrive at this moment by some accident of history, Kansas City Star, 11 Oct 08 Posted: 27-31 Oct 08 Horizons: W Buiter & A Sibert--Iceland's banking collapse: Predict- able end and lessons for other vulnerable nations -- In early '08, we were invited to study Iceland's financial problems. We identified the 'vulnerable quartet' of: 1) a small country, with 2) a large banking sector, 3) its own currency, and 4) limited fiscal capacity - a quartet that meant its banking model was not viable. In July, our Icelandic counterparts considered our study to be too market-sensitive to be released and we agreed to keep it confidential, say fmr Bank of Eng- land & U London's Birbeck Coll economists, VoxEU, 30 Oct 08 Revolt against 'elite clubs' grows at UN: The General Assembly pres criticized the assns of rich countries - like the G8 - by stressing that 'it is time to stop viewing the global economy as the private dominion of some exclusive clubs'. Together with diplomats from developing nations, he called for a new global financial architecture with an ad- equate representation of all nations. Nobelist Stiglitz is to head a new UN task force of experts to do a review of the intl fin system, Inter Press Service, 30 Oct 08 (UN Gen Assembly | Statement) London's and New York's lead cut in Global Financial Centers Index: London and NY, the world's top fin centers, both score lower in the 4th half-yearly index - even though the rating takes no account of events since July '08. Based on responses collected before the latest phase in the global turmoil, both remain well ahead of the competi- tion in 1st and 2nd place respectively among 59 centers, followed by Singapore & Hong Kong, City Lond Corp, 25 Sep 08 (Report, pdf, 1.1Mb) Edmund Phelps: Beware the smothering of economic dynamism--On the left, politicians are promising stronger regulation - and more public spending.On the right, politicians are bracing for that increased regulation and spending if they lose the election. The quest for stimu- lation, challenge, testing, exploration and discovery is a core part of American culture.It is unlikely to be shattered by the latest recession, says Nobel laureate, Forbes, 22 Oct 08 IMF to launch new facility for emerging markets hit by crisis: The Fund said it will create a new short-term lending facility to channel funds quickly to emerging markets that have a strong track record but with temporary liquidity problems. Meanwhile, the US Fed said it has set up temporary reciprocal currency arrangements (swap lines) with Brazil, Mexico, SKorea and Singapore to mitigate the spread of difficulties in obtaining US dollar funding, IMF Survey Mag, 29 Oct 08 (Fed statement | Glossary--'Swap' & 'swap arrangements') Alice Rivlin: Learning from the economic mess--We are still in dam- age control mode. We don�t yet know whether these enormous ef- forts will be successful in averting a meltdown. But this Cmte is right to begin thinking through how to prevent future financial collapses & make capital markets work more effectively. Pundits have been ask- ing apocalyptic questions, 'Is this the end of market capitalism? Are we headed down the road to socialism?,' notes fmr Congress Budget Ofc dir, Testimony-House Fin Svcs Cmte (via Brookings), 21 Oct 08 Latin America needs better taxes and better spending: Fiscal policy, acc to the latest Latin American Economic Outlook, can be a power- ful tool for economic, political and social development in the region if taxes are raised efficiently and fairly and spending is directed to pro- moting growth and reducing poverty & inequality, OECD, 28 Oct 08 (IMF LatAm outlook | Ibero-American summit [in Spanish]) Michael Spence: From global imbalances to effective global govern- ance--The interdependencies in the global economy have outrun our collective capacity to manage them and coordinate policy responses. Influential developing nations share a joint responsibility with the G-8 for the stability of the global financial & economic systems. But they currently have limited channels for discharging that responsibility and influencing global policies, says Nobel laureate, Proj Syndicate (cour- tesy J Turkish Wkly), 24 Oct 08 Arvind Subramanian: Preserving 'Brand India' during financial crisis-The stakes are high because policy hesitancy or missteps can turn mild contagion into virulent disease. One lesson that countries are learning is that during a crisis of confidence, policymakers have to get ahead of the curve in order to reassure markets, says senior fel- low, Business Times/India (courtesy Peterson Inst), 24 Oct 08 The financial crisis -- Into the storm: How the emerging markets cope with the tempest will affect the world economy and politics for a long time, Economist, 23 Oct 08 New report notes significant slowing in net private capital flows to emerging markets from '07: A report from a global assn of more than 390 financial services firms estimates that net private flows to emerging markets in '07 reached a record volume of almost $900B. After a strong start, flows this year are seen as moderating signifi- cantly to about $620B, and it forecasts that the '09 total will be about $560B, reflecting a likely substantial slowing of the global economy, Inst Intl Finance, 12 Oct 08 Truth in numbers: Economist George Borjas believes statistics have a powerful role to play in the hot-button debate on immigration. The 'give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses' myth is so en- twined with what it means to be an American that it is very difficult for most people to look at this issue rationally, says Harvard prof, Harvard, Jan-Mar '07 (Knockin' on heaven's door); and Michael Clemens: If Congress admits more foreign nurses, will it be responsible for killing children in poor nations?: A subcmte of the US Congress has just approved a bill that would let modestly more foreign nurses work in the US. Should citizens be outraged at the US govt? Should the representatives who encourage nurse migration be locked up?, asks res fellow, Ctr Global Dev, 5 Aug 08 (Don't close the golden door | Global Forum on Migration and Development) Financial crisis moves to Gulf Arab nations: Kuwait moved to prop up its 2nd-largest commercial bank and scrambled to protect deposit- ors at other domestic banks, dashing hopes the oil-rich Arab Gulf would emerge largely unscathed from the crisis. The bank woes and nervous market highlight problems the oil-rich states may still con- front as they try to sustain massive spending and high growth rates amid falling oil prices & bank uncertainty, AP (courtesy Globe and Mail/Canada), 26 Oct 08 IMF set to lend to Ukraine, Iceland and Hungary: IMF announced a plan to lend $16.5B to Ukraine to support a policy package the na- tion has assembled, while the Fund announced an initial agreement with Iceland on a $2.1B 2-year loan to support a recovery program. Meanwhile, a substantial financing package in support of Hungary will be announced when a program is finalized shortly, IMF Survey Mag, 26 Oct 08 (Iceland | Hungary | Exec Bd statement on its chief | Chief's statement) Posted: 20-24 Oct 08 Does the free market corrode moral character?--A conversation: To the contrary, says Columbia's Bhagwati. It depends, claims LSE's Gray. Yes, but.., says fmr chess champ Kasparov. There are more views from Vanguard's Bogle, UC Berkeley's Reich, France's Levy and AEI's Novak, among others, Templeton Foundation, Oct '08 C and V Reinhart: From capital flow bonanza to financial crash--Danger ahead for emerging markets: A pattern has often been re- peated in global finance. Investors turn with interest toward the latest 'hot' foreign market. Capital flows in volume into the market, the ex- change rate tends to appreciate, asset prices to rally and local com- modity prices to boom. But tides also go out when the fancy of in- vestors shifts and the 'new paradigm' looks shopworn. Flows reverse or suddenly stop and asset prices give back their gains, often forcing a painful adjustment, warn fmr IMF dep res dir & AEI economist, VoxEU, 23 Oct 08 Asia must join response to financial crisis, EU says: Major Asian economies must play a full role in overcoming the global financial crisis, EComm pres said today ahead of a summit of Asian & Euro- pean leaders. At the Beijing summit on Fri & Sat, Asia is represent- ed by 10 countries of Assn of Southeast Asian Nations, China, Jap- an, S Korea, India, Mongolia and Pakistan. Europe is represented by the 27 EU member nations, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (courtesy EarthTimes/India), 23 Oct 08 (About Asia-Europe Meeting) Bush to host world finance summit: Pres Bush will host the world's first global financial summit in the US on 15 Nov. Leaders from the G20 -which includes industrialized & developing nations- will attend, as well as the winner of the US presidential vote. The meeting, to be held in Washington, will consider the reforms needed to avoid an- other crisis and look at the progress being made so far, BBC News, 22 Oct 08 (About: Group of 20 | Financial Stability Forum) New comprehensive ranking of 60 most global cities: Emerging cities are challenging long-established leaders for global status, acc to a new Global Cities Index released by A T Kearney, Chicago Coun- cil on Global Affairs, and Foreign Policy, 20 Oct 08 (Rankings) J Burkhard, R Kadakia & D Yergin: Ratcheting down--Oil and the global credit crisis: The world changes in a crisis. We are in one.The fastest expansion of the world economy in a generation - annual av- erage growth of 4.6% from '03 to '07 - is quickly becoming a mem- ory, Cambridge Energy Res Assoc, 14 Oct 08 IMF in talks on loans to countries hit by financial crisis: IMF is cur- rently discussing possible loan packages for Hungary, Iceland, Pakis- tan and Ukraine. It is also in discussions with a number of other na- tions (such as Belarus) about possible financing needs & is providing confidential policy advice to govts in developing nations on how to adapt to the current turmoil, IMF Survey Mag, 22 Oct 08 Intl Working Group of sovereign wealth funds publishes 24-point voluntary principles: The IWG, representing nations with sovereign wealth funds, presented the Santiago Principles - agreed in the Chil- ean capital last month - to the IMF's policy-setting body. The princi- ples represent generally accepted principles & practices that reflect SWFs' investment practices. These are voluntary, which the IWG members support & either have implemented or aspire to implement, 11 Oct 08 (Santiago Principles [pdf]) EU, US to host global financial crisis summit: After meeting US pres on Sat, 18 Oct, French pres and EU Comm pres unveiled plans for a series of global summits to address the financial meltdown, with the 1st to take place shortly after the US presidential vote. The summits are expected to involve not only G8 (US, Canada, France, Germany, UK, Italy, Japan & Russia),but also emerging economies (like China, India, Brazil & SAfrica), plus others like Saudi Arabia, SKorea and Australia, EurActive/UK, 20 Oct 08 (IMF Board statement on its chief) City of London Corp releases report on Asian financial centers: A new report says it is likely that a no. of Asian fin centers will become increasingly important globally, each with unique specializations. It focuses on 3 - Hong Kong, Singapore & Tokyo. Given the current market uncertainty, the center of gravity in the world is increasingly shifting towards Asia, 6 Oct 08 (Exec sum [pdf] | Chatham Hse/Chi- na Europe Intl Biz Sch--The fallout from the crisis) Which nations make the FY09 corruption cut?--A preview into the Millennium Challenge Account country selection: In its selection process, the only indicator that nations must pass in order to qualify for funds is 'control of corruption', one of the indicators developed by World Bank Inst. The MCC, with Congress' support, made it the only 'hard hurdle' in order to help ensure that funds go to a select group of poor but well-governed nations. A preliminary analysis shows 5 currently 'compact'-eligible nations (Armenia, Nicaragua, Philippines, Timor-Leste & Ukraine) failing the hurdle, Ctr Global Dev, 2 Oct 08 (White House Summit on Intl Dev | Briefing) . Joseph Stiglitz: How to get out of the financial crisis -- Capitalism may be the best economic system that man has come up with, but no one ever said it would create stability. In fact, over the past 30 years, market economies have faced more than 100 crises. That is why I and many other economists believe that govt regulation and oversight are an essential part of a functioning market economy. So more must be done to prevent the crisis from spreading around the world. Here's what it will take, says Nobel laureate, Time, 17 Oct 08 Solutions and predictions offered at forum on economic crisis: A fo- rum on 'Understanding the financial crisis and what it means to you' was held in which 5 economic experts mixed market theory with gut speculation while taking stock of the world's financial crisis, Stan- ford, 10 Oct 08 (Harv Crimson--Panel weighs market meltdown | Profs split on bailout plan) Ten steps to equity in education: Education plays a key role in deter- mining how you spend your adult life - a higher level of educ means higher earnings, better health & a longer life. By the same token, the long-term social & financial costs of educational failure are high. So a fair and inclusive system that makes the advantages of education available to all is one of the most powerful levers to make society more equitable, OECD, 29 Jan 08 [pdf] Posted: 13-17 Oct 08 Kenneth Arrow: The financial turmoil is a challenge to economic theory--There have been 2 developments in the econ theory of un- certainty in the last 60 years, which have had opposite implications for the radical changes in the financial system. The 1st point of view tends to argue for the expansion of markets, the 2nd for recognizing that they may fail to exist and, if they do come into being, may fail to work for the benefit of the general economic situation, says Nobel laureate, Guardian, 15 Oct 08 'Setback for all' if financial turmoil slows globalization: A panel dis- cussion on 'Global turbulence & the slowdown in G-7 growth: Can developing nations sustain high growth, and how?' accepted that the crisis justifies a major rethinking of fin. sector. But some speakers said that if such a reassessment included any reversal of the policy of opening up the world economy, it would have serious negative consequences, IMF Survey Mag, 15 Oct 08 (Emerging mkts worry when advanced nations falter) World Bank Grp launches 'Remittance Prices Worldwide': The new online database provides data on the cost of sending and receiving small amounts of money from 14 sending nations to 67 receiving na- tions. Estimates show that remittances totaled $337B in '07. The publication serves 4 major purposes: to benchmark improvements, to allow comparisons among nations, to support consumers' choices, and to put pressure on service providers to improve their services, Intl Finance Corp, 2 Oct 08 Dani Rodrik: Who killed Wall Street?--So where did it all go wrong? If our remedies do not target the true underlying sources of the cri- sis, our newfound regulatory zeal might end up killing useful sorts of financial innovation, along with the toxic kind. The trouble is that there is no shortage of suspects, says Harvard economist, Proj Syn- dicate (courtesy Biz Standard/India), 14 Oct 08 World according to Robert Shiller: A rock star among economists, the Yale professor who called the dot-com era bubble in stocks says that the housing slump could turn out worse than that of the Depres- sion, by L Grove, Conde Nast Portfolio, 2 May 08 Posted earlier: Robert Shiller--The subprime solution: How today's global financial crisis happened, and what to do about it--To restore confidence in the markets, bailouts are needed in the short run. But these bailouts must be targeted at low-income victims of subprime deals. In the longer term, the solution will require leaders to revamp the financial framework by deploying a package of initiatives to inhibit the formation of bubbles and limit risks, argues Yale econo- mist, Princeton U Press, 2 Sep 08 Portfolio: When Markets Collide by Mohamed El-Erian wins the Business Book of the Year award--This year's winner is a timely alert to the fundamental changes taking place in today's global econ- omic & financial systems - and a call to action for investors who may fall victim to misinterpreting important signals, Goldman Sachs/ FT, 14 Oct 08 (Book excerpt) World economic turmoil highlights value of IBSA trade links: The current intl financial crisis has increased the importance of trade and investment opportunities between the 3 member nations of the IBSA Dialogue Forum - India, Brazil & S Africa. This was the consensus among biz leaders attending the summit of 3 developing country de- mocracies in Delhi, Engineering News/S Africa, 13 Oct 08 (Silicon India | Summit | About) Financial crisis caution urged by faculty panel: Business School fac- ulty members, looking at the financial crisis from a variety of disci- plines, urged caution and prudent analysis in a recent panel discus- sion titled 'Turmoil on the Street: Fathoming the financial crisis', Harvard, 29 Sep 08 Jeffrey Sachs: How to fix the US financial crisis--Policies can avert disaster only if they interrupt the four cascading threats that the US economy faces, says Columbia economist, Scientific American, 3 Oct 08 Bradford DeLong: The wrong financial crisis--All of us economists from Lawrence Summers to John Taylor were expecting a very dif- ferent financial crisis. We were expecting the 'Balance of Financial Terror' between Asia and America to collapse and produce chaos. We are not having that crisis; instead, we are having a very different one, says UC Berkeley economist, VoxEU, 10 Oct 08 Nobel Prize in Economics -- Paul Krugman, 'for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity': Patterns of trade and location have always been key issues in the economic debate. What are the effects of free trade and globalization? What are the driving forces behind worldwide urbanization? Krugman has formulated a new theory to answer these questions. He has thereby integrated the previously disparate research fields of international trade and econ- omic geography, Nobel Foundation, 13 Oct 08 Paul Krugman: Gordon does good -- With stunning speed, the UK govt defined the character of the worldwide financial rescue effort. Now other wealthy nations have to catch up, says Nobel laureate, NYT (via IHTrib), 13 Oct 08 (IMF welcomes euro zone crisis plan | G20--Meeting on crisis and statement | About) Foreign direct investment may have peaked in '07: Global FDI in- flows rose in '07 by 30% to reach an all-time high of $1.83T, acc to the latest World Investment Report. The flows surpassed the previ- ous record set in 2000 by some $400B. However, the worldwide slowdown appears to augur lower FDI activity for '08, Unctad, 24 Sep 08 Seminar room: World university rankings--This week marks an im- portant point in the calendar for the leading global universities with the publication of the latest rankings. In only four years, the rankings have established themselves as an accepted benchmark of quality. They will be scrutinized by students, employers and academics on every continent, Times Higher Ed/QS (UK), 13 Oct 08 (Top 400) << Previous Home Next >> Copyright (c) 2001-2009 Leonardo L. Sta. 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