You are at: Home > News and Analysis > Page 6 > Page 7 of 83 Posted: 6-8 Apr 09 4 more countries commit to OECD tax standards: Costa Rica, Ma- laysia, Philippines and Uruguay have now officially informed OECD that they commit to cooperate in the fight vs tax abuse and that this year they will propose legislation to remove the impediments to the implementation of the standard and will incorporate the standard in their existing laws and treaties, OECD, 7 Apr 09 Experts say Africa has minimal influence over own development, destiny: The G20 leaders who met in London to discuss the global crisis made sure that enough was said about Africa to appease those who had called for the world's financial powers not to forget the continent. But the summit, like many meetings before it, failed to ad- dress the balance in the decision-making processes in intl fin institu- tions like the World Bank and IMF, Deutsche Welle, 4 Apr 09 Fred Bergsten: Objections do not invalidate 'substitution account' benefits (letter to ed)--I was delighted that the eminent IMF historian J Boughton viewed my proposal for a substitution account as 'an ex- cellent idea' that 'could be part of the solution' to the present dilem- ma whereby many official institutions desire to diversify out of dol- lars but no other currencies want to receive the corresponding in- flows, writes Inst dir, FT (courtesy Peterson Inst), 28 Dec 07; and From our archive: F Bergsten--How to solve problem of the dollar: Many dollar holders, incl central banks and sovereign wealth funds, clearly want to diversify into other currencies. But even a modest realization of these desires could produce a free fall of the dollar, FT, 11 Dec 07 (James Boughton--Letter to ed [courtesy IMF]) H Soesastro & P Drysdale: East Asia and the new world economic order--Now that the dust has begun to settle, Ctr Strategic/Intl Stud- ies senior economist and EAsia Bur Econ Res head start the task of assessing UK PM Brown's claim that the G20 Summit saw the cre- ation of a new world econ order, East Asia Forum, 5 Apr 09 Charles Wyplosz: G20 Summit outcome--A skeptic's view: Did the summit succeed? Intl Ctr Money/Banking Studies head argues that, except for the promises of more resources for the IMF, the summit did not move the agenda forward. Doing more was probably impos- sible, but now govts must do more at home, and very urgently. It would be a tragedy if the summit outcome encouraged complacency, VoxEU, 3 Apr 09 Marcus Noland: North Korea--Take away their Mercedes: During the campaign, candidate Obama promised that if NKorea reneged on its intl commitments, he'd lead a multilateral effort aimed at "sus- pending energy assistance, reimposing sanctions that have recently been waived & considering new restrictions." There's just one prob- lem: UN sanctions have been tried before, & failed, says Inst senior fellow, Newsweek (courtesy Peterson Inst), 14 Feb 09 (Exec sum--[Non] impact of UN sanctions on NKor) Economists see a few bright spots: Nearly 6 months after a panel of 5 MIT faculty experts in economics and business warned that the financial crisis would get much worse, the same group reconvened and identified a few bright spots on the horizon, MIT, 1 Apr 09 Claudia Rosett: The UN's "Alliance of Civilizations"--Pres Obama is traveling to Istanbul, where he will attend a meeting of a UN outfit - the Alliance of Civilizations. Under that grand title, hundreds of worthies will gather to pursue various aspects of 'engagement'. Ex- pected to attend are UN Sec-Gen Ban, officials of co-sponsors Tur- key & Spain, a fmr Portuguese pres now heading it - and, it's a good bet there will be representatives there from Iran, Forbes, 26 Mar 09 (UN--Forum for cultur. understanding will focus on specific clashes) 100 cos. from rapidly developing economies are fast joining the ranks of multinational elite: The world's leading multinationals are facing an unprecedented competitive challenge from a new group of fast-globalizing cos based in rapidly developing economies, acc to a new report. Chinese cos dominate the list, followed by firms from India, Brazil, Mexico & Russia. For the first time, the Mideast is rep- resented, with cos from United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. In all, 14 nations are represented in the list, Boston Consult Grp, 28 Jan 09 Posted: 30 Mar-3 Apr 09 Following G20 OECD delivers on tax pledge: Following the G20 summit, the OECD has provided a detailed report on progress by financial centers around the world towards implementation of an in- ternationally agreed standard on exchange of info for tax purposes. The standard "requires exchange of info on request in all tax matters for the admin and enforcement of domestic tax law w/o regard to a domestic tax interest requirement or bank secrecy for tax purposes. It also provides for extensive safeguards to protect the confidentiality of info exchanged," OECD, 2 Apr 09 (Progress report [pdf]) Editorial: The G20's funny money -- IMF has a plan to create cash & pass it all over the world. Special drawing rights (SDRs) are noth- ing more than a fancy term for allocated credits divvied out by the IMF to member nations. Under fiat currencies, SDRs are like bits of paper printed by IMF officials in the basement. They have no value but can be exchanged for subsidized loans to nonreserve currency nations.When a nation decides it wants to spend an SDR, it alerts the Fund, which then takes the bits of paper it created to the nation that has the real money & exchanges them, WSJ, 1 Apr 09 Stiglitz's UN panel: Replace the dollar -- A UN-appointed intl panel led by Nobel laureate Stiglitz has urged a replacement of the dollar as the global currency and doing away with the G20, Business Week, 25 Mar 09 (Guardian--Stiglitz: Reform is in the air | Panel's news re- lease and preliminary report [pdf]) US ranks no.8 in new global innovation index behind Singapore, S Korea: In the largest global index of its kind, US ranked 8th in in- novation leadership among 110 nations, acc to a new joint report with Boston Consulting Grp. Singapore is no.1, followed by SKorea & Switzerland. In the large-nation category, US ranked 2nd behind SKorea, Manufacturing Inst, 9 Mar 09 (Innovation imperative in mfg [pdf]) Summiteers OK big loans, no econ rescue stimulus: World leaders pledged Thu more than $1T for emergency loans to contain the con- tagion, but they rebuffed Pres Obama's bid for new stimulus spend- ing. The G20 industrial & developing nations vowed major efforts to clean up banks' tattered balance sheets and get credit flowing again, to shut down global tax havens and to tighten regulation over hedge funds, AP (via its host site), 2 Apr 09 (London G20 summit) Barry Eichengreen: Five ideas for strengthening the IMF -- The net- work has commissioned a collection of 700-word policy proposals from resource persons, asking us to put forward 5-6 priorities in response to the economic crisis. Here, I present 5 key proposals for strengthening intl financial institutions, focusing on the Intl Monetary Fund, says UC Berkeley economist, Policy Network/UK, 27 Mar 09 Colin Bradford: G20 stimulus split--A false debate: The issue of a coordinated fiscal stimulus response to the global crisis is one of the important items to watch in terms of summit results. But what does this really mean for the man on the street? My bet is that the protest- ors on London's streets care more about the scale and scope of res- ponse and how it will affect them rather than how we split the differ- ence, says Inst senior fellow, Brookings, 1 Apr 09 Ngaire Woods: The G20 Summit--Saving globalization...again?: A world that is angry and afraid will be watching when global leaders meet in London, says Oxford's global economic governance prog dir. Angry that govts let global finance veer hopelessly out of control. Afraid that govts are now impotent to deal with the consequence, World Today, Apr '09 [pdf] Simon Evenett: Hammering economic protectionism--Avoiding a re-run of the 1930s is not inevitable. Actions, not just words, count in perilous times such as these. Only together can leaders prevent the protectionism, mass unemployment, misery, and ultimately the threat to peace that the '30s became. Leaders must take these 5 steps im- mediately, says Univ St Gallen/Switz. economist, Policy Network/ UK, 27 Mar 09 Bleak outlook for developing Asia, but region can cope with crisis: Developing Asia's economic growth will slow in '09 to its most slug- gish pace since the '97-'98 Asian financial crisis, the Asian Develop- ment Outlook '09 says. Despite the dismal outlook, the report says that the region is in a much better position to cope with this crisis than it was then, ADB, 31 Mar 09 (Asia needs to rebalance its growth to endure the global downturn) Kenneth Rogoff: Brave new financial world -- The stakes in the de- bate over intl fin reform are huge. The dollar's role at the center of the global fin system, says fmr IMF chief economist, gives the US the ability to raise vast sums of capital without unduly perturbing its economy.More fundamentally, the US role at the center of the global financial system gives tremendous power to US courts, regulators & politicians over global investment throughout the world, Proj Syndi- cate (courtesy Korea Times), 29 Mar 09 Edmund Phelps: An open letter to UK PM Brown and G20 leaders --When the G20 leaders convene in London to propose measures to address the global economic crisis, re-regulation of the financial sec- tor will be high on the agenda. Although the need for re-regulation is clear, the key issue is how to design regulation without discouraging funding for investment in innovation in the biz sector, Columbia U, 24 Mar 09 (Confab news release) [pdf] Simon Johnson: The quiet coup--The crash has laid bare many un- pleasant truths about the US. One of the most alarming, says former IMF chief economist, is that the finance industry has effectively cap- tured the govt - a state of affairs that more typically describes emerg- ing markets and is at the center of many emerging-market crises. If the IMF's staff could speak freely about the US, it would tell what it tells all nations in this situation: recovery will fail unless the fin oligar- chy that is blocking reform is broken, Atlantic, May '09 G20 Summit--Timeline of main events: The G20 Summit meeting in London this week will see thousands of politicians, economists, po- lice and protestors in the British capital. Here is a timeline of major events, Telegraph, 30 Mar 09 World votes for climate action in Earth Hour event: Hundreds of millions of people in thousands of communities worldwide have urged their leaders to come up with decisive global action on climate change this year in an event surpassing all expectations, Panda.org, 28 Mar 09 Posted: 23-27 Mar 09 Can technology lead us out of economic turmoil?: This year's Global Information Technology Report underlines that good education fun- damentals, high levels of tech readiness and innovation are essential engines of growth needed to overcome the current crisis. Denmark and Sweden lead the networked readiness rankings, followed by US, Singapore and Switzerland, World Economic Forum, 26 Mar 09 (Country rankings [pdf]) Why the crisis is good: Q&A with Brazil's pres--Lula wants to fight: Once a leftist firebrand, Pres Lula da Silva turned to free-market lib- eralism and helped make his country LatAm's biggest economic suc- cess. Earlier this month he became the first Latin leader to visit Pres Obama at the White House, and in April he'll head to London for the G20 summit, Newsweek, 21 Mar 09 S.Africa's Manuel pushes for sweeping changes to IMF: The panel led by Fin.Min. Manuel, appointed by the IMF chief last year to look into ways to make the IMF more effective as the main overseer of the global financial system, said the IMF's advice had lost traction & influence. Among several recommendations is that 'consideration be given to a substantial SDR allocation', Reuters, 26 Mar 09 (Manuel's cover letter [pdf] | AP--IMF chief: China currency proposal 'interest- ing' | Rodrik--Why don't we hear a lot more about SDRs?) [courtesy IMF & Malaysia Star] 8:30PM local time, wherever you live on planet earth.Sat 28 Mar 09: The global call to action on climate change has been answered from east to west as a record 538 cities and towns in 83 countries sign up to turn their lights off for Earth Hour. Among the nations joining are 47 developing and emerging economies, up from the 9 that took part last year. The major cities in these countries that are joining include Shanghai, New Delhi, Beijing, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Jakarta, Istanbul, Seoul, Mexico City and Manila, Earthhour. org, 25 Mar 09 US, Europe brush off calls for new reserve currency: An upcoming United Nations panel report (from the 'Stiglitz Commission') is ex- pected to side with China, Russia and others who want to end the US dollar's long reign as the world's reserve currency by shifting to a new coinage run by the Intl Monetary Fund, Globe and Mail/Can- ada, 25 Mar 09 (IMF fact sheet--Special drawing rights [SDRs]) WTO sees 9% global trade decline in '09 as recession strikes: The collapse in global demand brought on by the biggest economic down- turn in decades will drive exports down by roughly 9% in volume terms in '09, the biggest such contraction since WW2, World Trade Org, 23 Mar 09 (WB--Protectionist measures show worrisome rise since crisis began | OECD--Crisis is an opportunity to revive trade reforms) East Asia needs collective approach to tackle global crisis,secure long term growth-report: A new study from a group of leading research economists in Asia-Pacific recommends that the region's leaders attending the G20 summit adopt a strong coordinated approach to issues up for discussion. In the longer term, it recommends a larger focus on promoting increased domestic and regional demand to counter an expected decline in trade with developed nations, Asian Policy Forum (courtesy ADB Inst), 19 Mar 09 (Exec sum) 'Locations to watch' for next outsourcing boom: A new report has identified 31 cities which are emerging as leading pretenders to the 'biz process outsourcing' crown held by Bangalore & Shanghai.They are an eclectic mix of well-known cities in industrial nations & lesser-known places in emerging markets. Winnipeg, Belfast and Buenos Aires feature alongside Queretaro (Mex), Davao City (Phil), Cluj-Napoca (Romania) & Port Louis (Mauritius). It includes 10 cities in the Americas (incl Calgary, Guadalajara & Indianapolis), 10 in Asia-Pac (incl Changsha, Jaipur & Ho Chi Minh City),11 in Europe, Mid- east & Africa (incl Sofia, Gdansk & Belgrade), KPMG, 12 Feb 09 New program aims to entice private investors to help banks: The Obama administration unveiled the latest program in its financial rescue plan Mon to draw private investors into a partnership with a new federal entity that could buy up troubled assets weighing down the nation's banks, PBS NewsHour, 23 Mar 09 (Q&A with White House economic adviser L Summers | Treasury fact sheet) Joseph Stiglitz: Progress, what progress?-The global economic crisis has focused minds on restoring growth. But does growth necessarily mean progress? What about factors which growth depends on, such as the environment or happiness? Measuring true progress demands new indicators and a major global project to develop them is now underway, says Nobel laureate, OECD Observer, Mar '09 (Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Commission on measurement of econ performance/so- cial progress | EU's Beyond GDP) Obama seeks investors in plan to buy illiquid assets: The administra- tion will announce details of a plan today to expand the $700B res- cue of the financial system that will rely on enticing private investors to buy the troubled assets clogging banks' balance sheets. The an- nouncement is a major test for Geithner, whose first speech on the financial rescue 10 Feb offered so few details that it triggered a sell-off in financial stocks, Bloomberg, 23 Mar 09 M Pei & J Anderson: The color of China--Will China fail? Carnegie Endowm. for Intl Peace's Pei argues severe environmental degrada- tion, an unruly populace & a diseased infrastructure are real threats. UBS's Anderson believes China's GDP juggernaut will grow at a rec- ord pace, National Interest, Mar-Apr '09 (WB--China's economy holding up well despite major hit from global crisis) Posted: 16-20 Mar 09 James Galbraith: No return to normal--Obama's presidency began in hope & goodwill,but its test will be its success or failure on the econ- omics. Did the pres & his team correctly diagnose the problem? Did they act with sufficient imagination & force? It is therefore important that thought and learning move quickly. Does the economic team have the range & flexibility required? If not, everything will depend, as it did with Roosevelt,on the imagination & character of Pres Oba- ma, says U Texas Austin economist, Wash. Monthly, Mar-Apr '09 Africa's water crisis--A quarter of $1B down the drain: Hundreds of millions of dollars have been wasted on African rural water projects, threatening the health & livelihoods of millions of vulnerable people, says a briefing paper to be released on World Water Day, 22 Mar. Tens of thousands of boreholes in rural areas have fallen into disre- pair, depriving poor communities of water because donors, govts and nongovt orgs have built infrastructure but ignored the need to main- tain it, Intl Inst Envir Dev, 20 Mar 09 Emerging markets face growing capital account pressures: An analy- sis, prepared for the Group of 20, said that many emerging markets are facing increasing difficulties around the world because of the economic crisis, with demand falling for their exports, investment slumping, and cross-border lending drying up, IMF Survey Mag, 19 Mar 09 (Rich economies to shrink in '09, upturn in '10 | Note A for G20 | Note B for G20) Paul Collier: A less developed crunch--Some 60 low-income nations, with a population of about a billion people, have missed out on the recent decades of global prosperity. But does their exclusion from growth mean that the worst of the economic crisis will pass them by too?, asks 'Bottom Billion' author, Prospect Mag, Mar '09 Diana Farrell: How the world has already changed -- Many policy makers and business executives continue to assume that it's just a matter of time until we go back to where we were before the crisis began. They are probably mistaken, notes deputy dir of the White House's Natl Econ Council, What Matters/McKinsey, 23 Feb 09 P Veronesi & L Zingales: Geithner's AIG strategy--Underwriting in- surance against rare events always seems a profitable business - until the rare event occurs. Ignoring the real risk of insuring rare events is also what brought down AIG, the largest insurance co. in the world, which had insured many mortgage bonds and other securities similar to the ones that the financial industry is stuck with now, say U Chi- cago finance profs, City Journal/Manhattan Inst, 18 Feb 09 Legitimacy of G20 questioned: Nobel laureate Stiglitz has questioned the legitimacy of the G20 to steer the reform process of the world economy. The 'UN commission of experts on reforms of the intl monetary and financial system' chair said the G20 is only 20 of 192 UN nations, rendering its position flawed to make recommendations for a world crisis. The 21-member 'Stiglitz Commission', set up by the General Assembly pres, presents its report next month, Intl Inst Journ/Capacity Build Intl/Ger., 17 Mar 09 (UN-NGLS--Stiglitz talks on comm's findings | Comm meetings) State of the world's forests report launched: The dual challenges of economic turmoil & climate change are bringing the management of forests to global interest, says a UN report issued every 2 years. Due to the econ crisis, initiatives such as those for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation that are dependent on intl financial transfers could face problems. But there could also be posi- tive impacts - reduced wood demand could lessen pressure on for- ests, together with less conversion of forests for crop cultivation as prices fall, Food Agric Org, 16 Mar 09 (US N&WR--Rainforests for profit | Columbia U--Deforestation | Coalition for rainforest nations) Newsroom: Audience migration, recession reduce time journalism has to sort out finances--2 developments converged in '08 to shorten the time that US journalism has left to reinvent its biz model and se- cure its financial future, acc to the Proj for Excellence in Journ's new study. First, the audience migration to the Web accelerated substan- tially and, second, the recession hammered advertising and diverted attention away from innovating new revenue sources, Pew Research Ctr, 16 Mar 09 Deep impact: As world trade slumps because of the global crisis, we look at how 4 nations confront the disruptive effects. Steel producer Ukraine & consumer electronics manufacturer Singapore face shriv- eling demand & drooping prices for their output. Meanwhile, cotton exporter Burkina Faso's production reforms encounter fading textile buyers, & hi-tech nursery Ireland fails to keep its migrant labor em- ployed, Finance & Dev, Mar 14 Stiglitz calls for global solution to crisis: The Nobel laureate argues that the only way to fix the world's economic crisis is to act globally. Speaking at the Development Policy Forum in Berlin on Monday, he said the reform of the world's financial institutions wasn't going fast enough, Spiegel, 10 Mar 09 (G20 finance ministers meet) Nook & cranny: N Taleb & G Martin--The risks of severe, infre- quent events: Too little is made of the fact that financial market in- stitutions have been underprepared to measure, manage and price high-impact risls; indeed decision makers are actively rewarded for underestimating risks associated with low-probability events, explain 'Black Swan' author and Ctr Intl Sec Deriv Mkts assoc dir, Banker, Sep '07 (With Mandelbrot--How finance gurus get risk all wrong) [courtesy Taleb's site, pdf] << Previous Home Next >> Copyright (c) 2001-2009 Leonardo L. Sta. Romana All rights reserved. |
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