You are at: Home > News and Analysis > Page 9 > Page 10 of 83 Posted: 12-16 Jan 09 Obama wins legislative test as Senate allows use of financial-rescue funds: Pres-elect Obama won his 1st legislative test when the Senate voted to allow the use of $350B in fin-rescue funds. The vote came after Obama's econ adviser told Congress that up to $100B of the funds will be used to ease the housing crisis, Bloomberg, 16 Jan 09 New report explores future for global financial system: A report, The Future of the Global Financial System, explores a set of scenarios for the possible evolution of the industry. The report identifies a near-term outlook characterized by an expanded scope for regulatory oversight, a move back to basics in the banking sector, some restruc- turing by alternative investment firms & the emergence of a new set of winners & losers. It was overseen by a steering cmte of 20 leading industry practitioners and academics, World Econ Forum, 15 Jan 09 Daron Acemoglu: Economics and the crisis of '08--The global crisis is a challenge to & an opportunity for the economics profession.Here one of the profession's most innovative thinkers from MIT reflects on how & why economists failed to see the crisis coming, what they should tell govts to do about it, and what young economists should be working on to help us avoid future crises, VoxEU, 12 Jan 09 (Extended ver) David Miliband: 'War on terror' was wrong--We need to take a fun- damental look at our efforts to prevent extremism and terrorist vio- lence. Since 9/11, the call for a 'war on terror' was a call to arms, an attempt to build solidarity for a fight vs a single shared enemy. But ultimately, the notion is mistaken. The phrase gives a false idea of a unified global enemy, and encourages a primarily military reply. The foundation for solidarity bet. peoples and nations should be based not on who we are against, but on the idea of who we are and the values we share, asserts UK foreign min, Guardian, 15 Jan 09 Security, governance and development need stronger link, Bank pres says: Fragile states can create fragile regions that can then become global threats. Taking Afghanistan as an example, he said proposals for a troop build-up by NATO only went so far in addressing the nation's problems. The security plans need a tighter link to develop- ment outcomes that boost local legitimacy, ownership and eventually, security by Afghans for Afghans, World Bank, 8 Jan 09 The biggest political and economic risks for '09: As the world enters '09 facing the first global recession, the heads of 2 consulting groups identify the challenges ahead, bringing together their expertise on global politics and economics, Eurasia Grp, 12 Jan 09 (Podcast | Top risks and red herrings for '09 [pdf]) Jagdish Bhagwati: Multilateral free trade -- The Obama letdown: Obama's eloquent silence on key trade issues and his failure to bal- ance his protectionist appointments with powerful trade proponents that would produce a 'team of rivals' require that we sound an alarm. Multilateral free trade is being dangerously let down, warns Columbia U economist, VoxEU, 9 Jan 09 Barry Eichengreen: Bad credit history -- As a financial historian, I have come to expect calls from reporters whenever the stock market tanks. 'Could this be the start of another Great Depression?,' they ask. No, I respond, a stock market crash is not the same as a depres- sion.And policy makers have learned the lesson of history.What hap- pened before will not be allowed to happen again, I confidently con- clude. Now I have stopped taking reporters' calls, jokes UC-B prof, Current History, Jan '09 (Article courtesy UC Berkeley, pdf) Gregory Mankiw: Is government spending too easy an answer? --When the Obama administration finally unveils its proposal to get the US economy on the road to recovery, the centerpiece is likely to be a huge increase in govt spending. But there are ample reasons to doubt whether this is what the economy needs, notes fmr CEA chair, New York Times (via IHTribune), 11 Jan 09 Gaza--ICRC pres demands greater respect for civilians & humanitar- ian workers: During a visit to Gaza on Tue, the ICRC pres urged the fighting parties to spare civilians & let humanitarian workers do their work. The visit comes at a time of intensified fighting and deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Intl Cmte Red Cross, 13 Jan 09 Jeffrey Sachs: The case for bigger govt -- 30 years ago, Americans were told that govt was part of the problem, not the solution. We bet on the magic of the marketplace, but the magic proved illusory. Every major part of the economy-health care, energy, transportation, food and finance-is deeply troubled. Now we are ready to invite govt back in to help solve our problems, if the price is right and the strate- gies are convincing, writes Columbia Earth Inst dir, Time, 8 Jan 09 The link between economic opportunity and prosperity -- Index of economic freedom '09: An annual survey of econ freedom, now on its 15th year, shows Hong Kong maintaining its top rank, followed by Singapore, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand, Heritage Foundation, 13 Jan 09 [pdf, w/ rankings] (FAQ | Web site) Forum identifies key risks for year ahead: A new report, Global Risks '09, identifies a deteriorating global economy, a hard landing in China, a collapse in asset prices, gaps in global governance and issues relating to natural resources and climate as the pivotal risks facing the world this year, World Economic Forum, 13 Jan 09 Bank group discloses debarments under corporate procurement pro- gram: The WB Group has decided in the interest of fairness and transparency to make public the names of all cos. that have been debarred from receiving direct contracts from the Bank. There are currently 3 cos. that have been debarred along with their affiliates: Satyam, Wipro and Megasoft, World Bank, 11 Jan 09 (List of cos./ persons debarred on Bank-financed projects) (Wipro--Firm discloses vendor status with WB | Satyam's statements One, Two and Three) US remains on top of global innovation rankings, India trails behind: The 2nd Global Innovation Index, jointly published by Confed.of In- dian Industry and Insead Biz School, has once again placed US at the top of the rankings. The GII, which has studied 130 nations, has ranked Germany 2nd, followed by Sweden, UK & Singapore, Con- fed Indian Indus, 6 Jan 09 (Fast Co--Top 10 in '07 & '08 | Mgmt Today--Methodology) Posted: 2-9 Jan 09 The MIT lab solving foreign aid efficiency: Imagine you're the head of an aid agency working to improve conditions in an impoverished African nation, and you've got $50m to spend as you see fit. So you pick a hundred struggling schools and supply them with the works --teacher training, new textbooks, free meals for students, a free medi- cal clinic. At the end of the school year, presto, attendance & grades have gone up across the board. That's great. But what have you learned?, Esquire, 11 Dec 08 Eugene Fama: Govt equity capital for financial firms--The fin sector provides the grease that makes the transfer of savings to productive investments more efficient. Govt equity injections into fin cos. can make sense if the fin system is in danger. But it is important that in- jections are at minimum cost to taxpayers, ie, w/o unnecessary subsi- dies.Problems on this score arise when the funds go primarily to prop up the value of a fin firm's existing debt. In this case the true amount of new equity capital is less than the injection of funds by the govt, & the subsidy to debt holders is a loss to taxpayers with no clear off- setting benefit, says U Chicago Disting. Svce fin prof, Fama/French Forum, 5 Jan 09 The poor must not pay for the crisis: Poor people in poor countries are severely affected by the turmoil originating in rich ones. OECD countries must stimulate the world economy for the benefit of the poorest, and ultimately the benefit of all, OECD, 5 Dec 08 (Emerg- ing markets under stress [pdf]) Germany's Merkel calls for UN economics council: The UN should create an econ council to work alongside the Security Council as part of a wide-ranging reform of global financial architecture, Ger. Chan- cellor Merkel said at a conference. She said no nation could act alone during this fin crisis & stressed the need for greater intl cooperation, Reuters, 8 Jan 09 (Liberia pres attends 'New World, New Capitalism' conf in Paris | DJ--Rebuilding fin system must be intl effort-Sarkozy) [courtesy FXSt/Spain & EasyBourse/France] Martin Feldstein: Economic stimulus & sustained econ growth--Re- viving the economy requires a major fiscal stimulus from tax cuts & increased govt spending. It pains me to say that because I am a fiscal conservative who dislikes budget deficits & increases in govt spend- ing. But while accepting that a fiscal stimulus is necessary in the cur- rent circumstances, it is important to design the tax cuts and spending changes in the most cost-effective way, says fmr CEA chair, Testi- mony--House Dem Steering Cmte (courtesy NBER), 7 Jan 09 (Ex- tended ver) Justin Yifu Lin: Shifting perceptions of poverty--Imagine you are the prime minister of a developing nation. You have been working hard to reform the economy so that growth rates can be improved & pov- erty reduced. Just when you were confident things were on the right track, out of the blue some poverty experts come up with new esti- mates showiing that the updated intl poverty rate in your nation is much higher than previously thought, notes World Bank chief econo- mist, Finance & Dev, Dec '08 Q&A--What's behind the Ukraine-Russia gas dispute: Gazprom has now stopped gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine, accusing Kiev of shutting down all 4 pipelines and siphoning off gas for itself. The im- pact has been felt most acutely in Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Mace- donia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Turkey. It has now spread to Ger- many, France, Italy, Austria, Poland, Hungary & the Czech republic, Guardian, 7 Jan 09 Gaza - Plight of civilians traumatic in 'full-blown humanitarian crisis': Increasing numbers of civilians are dying or injured in the escalating crisis in Gaza. The ICRC's director of operations describes the situ- ation of civilians as intolerable, & called on the parties to the conflict to make it possible for the ICRC & Palestine Red Crescent Society to reach people in need, Intl Cmte Red Cross, 6 Jan 09 Q&A with Kenneth Rogoff: The Harvard economist is disturbed by much about recent policymaking - the refusal of US leaders to heed lessons about current accounts deficits, for instance, or to notice warning signs of impending financial crisis. Despite that frustration, he remains optimistic about the future of economics, The Region (Minneapolis Fed), Dec '08 Nancy Birdsall: An '09 development policy wish list -- We are at the start of what promises to be an unusually difficult year in the global economy. Policy decisions in the advanced nations will matter greatly for the poor in developing nations.Fortunately, there are a no. of fair- ly straight-forward policy initiatives that could make life less difficult for the developing world while also benefiting the majority in high-income nations, says Ctr pres, Ctr Global Dev, 5 Jan 09 F Bergsten & R Offenheiser: Balance trade with healthcare--If Oba- ma wants to promote bipartisanship to achieve economic progress at a time of crisis, we have a compelling suggestion for an area in which common ground is not only possible but necessary: trade. Take it from 2 people who, in normal times, are more likely to disagree than agree on large parts of trade policy, say Peterson Inst dir and Oxfam US pres, Miami Herald, 16 Dec 08 (Trade Policy Study Grp--Memo to Pres-elect & Congress [pdf]) Outsourcing of knowledge services creating new realm of manage- ment challenges--India, China & Russia are leading providers of off- shore engineering, design & research service: The no. of knowledge-based outsourcing service providers has nearly doubled since 2000, creating new challenges for cos. who must manage a greater no. of svce providers, acc to a new study 'Offshoring the Brains as well as the Brawn'. The study surveyed 120 service providers based in the US, Europe, China, Brazil, India & other nations, Duke U/Booz & Co, 31 Jul 08 E Derman & P Wilmott: Financial models must be clean and simple--The complex financial models that got us into this mess too often mask human nature behind false limitations of risk, say Columbia fin prof and author, BusinessWeek, 31 Dec 08 Getting a handle on political risk: At first glance, politics & biz seem strange bedfellows. Each answers to different constituents and each focuses on dissimilar short-term objectives and long-term goals. Yet in an increasingly nonpolar global biz environment, politics are more important than ever before. In this Q&A, Eurasia Grp pres shares his insights on how to turn awareness of pol. risk into biz opportunity, View Mag (PwC), Dec '08-Feb '09 Mr Rajan was unpopular (but prescient) at Greenspan party: To out- line his fears about the US economy,Raghuram Rajan picked a tough crowd. It was Aug '05, at a yearly meet of high-powered economists at Jackson Hole, Wyo. - & that year they were honoring Greenspan. A U Chicago Grad Sch Biz prof, he chose that moment to deliver a paper called 'Has financial development made the world riskier?' His answer:Yes. He quickly came under attack as an antimarket Luddite, wistful for old days of regulation, Wall St Journal, 2 Jan 09 World Bank reviews the Palestinian financial sector: The Bank just published the West Bank/Gaza Fin Sector Review which analyzes policy & institutional factors affecting fin sector effectiveness.It finds that the relatively new fin sector is still developing and, as in many developing nations, is dominated by the banking sector. Some obsta- cles facing the sector are tied to the dependence of banks on the Isra- eli fin system, particularly the lack of a Palestinian currency, World Bank, 21 Dec 08 Harold James: The Marx renaissance--Karl Marx has returned, if not quite from the grave then from history's dustbin. German Fin Min Steinbr�ck recently said that Marx's answers "may not be irrelevant" to today's problems, and French Pres Sarkozy allowed himself to be photographed leafing through the pages of Marx's Das Kapital, notes Princeton hist/intl aff prof, Proj Syndicate (courtesy Daily News/ Egypt), 26 Dec 08 IMF spells out need for global fiscal stimulus: As the world struggles to contain the continued fallout from the financial crisis, attention has shifted from rescuing failing fin institutions to supporting domestic demand, which has fallen off almost everywhere.Consumer spending has dropped sharply due to lower household wealth, tighter credit conditions & high uncertainty. Q&A with O Blanchard, chief econo- mist & C Cottarelli, fiscal aff dept dir, IMF Survey Mag, 29 Dec 08 (Fiscal policy for the crisis) Posted: 15-19 Dec 08 Further declines in GDP seen for '09 for industrial nations, but some gains likely towards year's end: The IIF, a global assn of more than 375 fin. institutions from 70 nations, predicts further slowing in the leading emerging markets, although their average growth rate in '09 at 3.1%, after 5.9% in '08, will exceed that of industrial nations by some 5 pct points. Weak growth is seen in central, east & south Eur- ope, as well as in Latin America, but emerging Asia will fare better, Inst Intl Finance, 18 Dec 08 (incl Fin market forecasts) Editorial: Reviving an economic engine -- Can Barack Obama clear up his party's mixed signals and get trade liberalization moving?, Washington Post (free registr reqd), 17 Dec 08 Jeffrey Sachs: Blackouts & cascading failures of the global markets--The global economic crisis is akin to a power blackout in which a single downed power line or transient overload causes power to be shunted to another part of the grid, which in turn leads to new over- loads, more shunting & ultimately to a cascade of failures that pushes a region into darkness, says Columbia Earth Inst dir, Scientific Am- erican, Jan '09 Amartya Sen: Greater expectations -- The most important thing that Barack Obama brings to the presidency is his willingness to reason. He won his presidency not as a black American but as a reasoning American who happens to be black, says Nobel laureate, Time, 4 Nov 08 Coffee/tea break: O little town of Bethlehem--For many people it is an idyllic image on a traditional Christmas card or school nativity play. A Christian Aid worker shares her visit to the 'real' Bethlehem, a little town in the heart of the West Bank Palestinian Territories, BBC News, 25 Nov 08 (Wikipedia map | Not sure where it is | Beth- lehem Passport | The other Bethlehem story) Coffee/tea break: NORAD Tracks Santa Web site going live--The site, designed by Booz Allen Hamilton, allows fans of all ages to get the latest reports from key stops on Santa's trip around the world. The program began on 24 Dec 55, after an errant phone call was made to the Air Defense Command Ctr in Colorado from a local kid who dialed a misprinted tel. no. in a news ad. The commander who answered gave the info requested - the whereabouts of Santa Claus - and this began the tradition, 24 Nov 08 (Track Santa | Why and How we track) Nook & cranny: The global tech revolution 2020--A briefing at Amer Assn Advance Sci session shows that nations will be helped or hin- dered by their 'sci/tech capacity'. A study of 29 nations found that by 2020, 'Scientifically Proficient' nations like China, India and Russia could make significant advances. 'Scientifically Developing' nations like Brazil, Turkey and Indonesia are poised to take advantage of modestly sophisticated tech. At the lowest end are 'Scientifically Lag- ging' nations like Fiji, Nepal and Chad that are burdened by troubled political systems, lack of resources or infrastructure, Rand, May '07 (Advanced nations will benefit most from tech progress, with lesser benefits to others) 3 questions--James Poterba on the recession: The MIT economist discusses the current recession and how long it might last. He is pres of the Natl Bur Econ Res, a private group of leading economists that dates the start and end of economic downturns, MIT News, 15 Dec 08 (Feldstein--Stepping down as NBER pres [pdf]) Nouriel Roubini: Desperate times, desperate policies--The threat of stag-deflation (a term I coined for a combination of recession/stagna- tion & deflation) has forced the Fed into a liquidity trap, with the Fed funds rate effectively close to 0%, and thus abandoned as a tool of monetary policy.The Fed is now relying on massive 'quantitative eas- ing' & direct purchases of private short-term & long-term debt to try to aggressively push down short-term & long-term rates, says NYU economist, Forbes, 4 Dec 08 Coffee/tea break: Largest global study of expats reveals best loca- tions -- The 3-part report of the Expat Explorer Survey, which ques- tioned 2,155 expats across more than 49 nations in 4 continents, re- veals that Singapore, UAE and US are the best locations to be an ex- pat, HSBC, Dec '08 [pdf] (Part one and part two | Report) Robert Lawrence: Will Americans demand the cars Congress wants the Big 3 to build?--If they build them, will they sell? There is a con- sensus supporting govt subsidies to develop new technologies, but these will only work if there are strong market forces moving in a similar direction, says Inst senior fellow, FT (courtesy Peterson Inst), 11 Dec 08, 'Nasty recession' for US to include four quarters of declining GDP: In its 4th quarterly report of '08, the Anderson Forecast predicts that the current recession inflicting the US economy will feature 4 quar- ters of negative growth (followed by very tepid growth rates) and rising unemployment rates that last through 2010, UCLA, 10 Dec 08 Bailout or bankruptcy--What will it take to get the US auto industry back on track?: The bailout plan's opponents in the Senate say that bankruptcy would be a more suitable outcome, since a bailout would generate little motivation for the automakers to change their business models, and would likely lead to similar requests for govt handouts down the road, Wharton/U Penn, 10 Dec 08 Dani Rodrik: Let developing nations rule--There is a silver lining for developing nations in the present crisis, for they will emerge with a much bigger say in the institutions that govern economic globaliza- tion. To make the best of this outcome, these nations will have to have a good sense of their interests & priorities, says Harvard econ- omist, Proj Syndicate (courtesy Guatemala Times), 11 Dec 08 Posted: 8-12 Dec 08 Joseph Stiglitz: Capitalist fools -- Behind the debate over remaking US economic policy will be a debate over who's to blame. It's crucial to get the history right. The financial system spiraled out of control because of five key mistakes - under Reagan, Clinton, and Bush II - and one national delusion, writes Nobel laureate, Vanity Fair, Jan '09 Rare summit on economic crisis: The leaders of China, Japan and SKorea will hold a rare joint meeting on 13 Dec in Fukuoka, Japan as they try to work out how best to cushion Asia from the global econ crisis, Agence France-Presse (courtesy Straits Times/Spore), 12 Dec 08 K Kang & M Syed: The road to recovery -- A view from Japan: Through most of the '90s & early 2000s, Japan grappled with a fin- ancial crisis whose origins were in some ways similar to the turmoil afflicting the US today. The storyline from a decade and a half ago in the world's 2nd largest economy evokes an unmistakable sense of d�j� vu. Some potentially useful lessons are suggested by Japan's ex- perience, say 2 IMF economists, Finance & Dev, Dec '08 Global slump hits developing countries as credit squeeze impedes growth & trade: The financial crisis has dimmed short-term prospects for developing nations and the volume of world trade is likely to con- tract for the 1st time since '82, says the latest Global Economic Pros- pects '09. The sharp slowdown has caused commodity prices to plummet, ending a historic 5-year boom, World Bank, 9 Dec 08 US ranks poorly on 'commitment to development': As Pres-elect Obama seeks ways to restore the US's intl reputation in the midst of a global financial crisis with roots in NY and Wash, a yearly assess- ment of rich countries' policies to build prosperity around the world finds that the US ranks 17th among 22 industrial nations, Ctr Global Dev, 4 Dec 08 East Asia won't be spared the impact of global economic storm: While East Asian nations have entered the present crisis substantially better prepared than they were for the '97 Asian financial crisis, none have been spared the full fury of the current one, says the latest six-monthly assessment of the region, World Bank, 10 Dec 08 (ADB--Slowdown in growth, difficult year ahead for Asia) From our archive: Asian growth to slow sharply in '09 -- Global de- mand for Asia's exports is waning, with the Eurozone, Japan and US in a deep slump,says the IMF's latest six-monthly Regional Economic Outlook. The financial environment has also become extremely chal- lenging. Global deleveraging is adding to tighter financing conditions, capital outflows, depressed equity prices, weakening of some region- al currencies, and higher sovereign and bank spreads, IMF Survey Mag, 24 Nov 08 Taking Stock -- Global impact of crisis: All the economic troubles might have started in the US, but they haven't ended there. Q&A with Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, Marketplace, 4 Dec 08 (Sen on 60 years of human rights | UN HRights Prize '08 | Know your rights) The proposed Detroit bailout: As a network of analysts of the auto industry globally, the forum has no 'official' position on any policy issue. Here we highlight 3 differing viewpoints on the bailout. There is the 'centrist' position of a "bailout but with strict conditions", the 'right' wing with a more Darwinian perspective, and the 'left' wing with the proposal to simply nationalize GM, MIT Intl Motor Vehicle Prog, 4 Dec 08 (Other views | Public memo to GM CEO) US auto industry will probably disappear, Nobel laureate says: Paul Krugman said plans by lawmakers to bail out the Big 3 automakers are a short-term solution due to a 'lack of willingness to accept the failure of a large industry in the midst of an economic crisis', AP (courtesy Taiwan News), 7 Dec 08 (NYT [free registr reqd]--Mis- reported) William Easterly: Development doesn't require big govt--Some na- tions are taking the wrong prescriptions from the financial crisis. The Depression's deceptive intellectual legacy is that development flows from all-knowing states rather than creative individuals. Let's hope that the backlash from today's crash will not spawn another round of bad economics for the poor, says NYU economist, Wall St J (cour- tesy NYU), 3 Oct 08 [pdf] Olivier Blanchard: Cracks in the system -- Repairing the damaged global economy: Looking at where we are today, the good news is that we have probably stepped back from the brink of financial ca- tastrophe. But the bad news is that, as policymakers were adopting appropriate measures on the financial front, the crisis began to have a sharper & deeper impact on the real economy, says IMF chief econ- omist, Finance & Dev, Dec '08 Newsroom: More online journalists than print journalists behind bars, media watchdog says -- In a reflection of the digital age, more online journalists are jailed around the world than journalists from any other medium, acc to NY-based Cmte to Protect Journalists. For the 10th consecutive year, China is the leading jailer of journalists, followed by Cuba, Myanmar, Eritrea & Uzbekistan, Agence France-Presse (courtesy Daily News/Egypt), 5 Dec 08 Michael Spence: Lessons from the crisis--It is one thing to have an asset bubble & excessive leverage in the housing sector,and quite an- other to have the balance sheets of all the major financial institutions damaged to the point that interbank lending dries up,channels for un- derwriting commercial paper vanish, & the payments system (which in its current form requires stability & confidence in the major fin in- stitutions) malfunctions. This is all part of the downward spiral in which we now find ourselves, says Nobel laureate, PIMCO, Nov '08 Fmr Botswana pres receives African leadership prize: The fmr pres of Botswana, Festus Mogae, received the Ibrahim Prize for African leadership achievement, which is awarded to a democratically elected fmr leader who served within the term limits set by the constitution. He was selected by a panel of 6 eminent persons chaired by fmr UN Sec-Gen Annan, Ibrahim Found, 15 Nov 08 [pdf] (Harvard--'08 In- dex of African governance) << Previous Home Next >> Copyright (c) 2001-2009 Leonardo L. Sta. Romana All rights reserved. |
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