Date:
26 June 2013
There are no easy, risk-free paths to development and prosperity but borrowing money from international financial markets is a strategy with huge downside risks. It is no secret that sovereign bonds carry significantly higher borrowing costs than concessional debt does, so why are an increasing number of developing countries, particularly Sub-Saharan economies, resorting to sovereign-bond issues? And why have lenders suddenly found these countries desirable?
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Date:
4 June 2013
The world has changed markedly since East Asia began its remarkable developmental transition more than a half-century ago: Their development policies worked while all too often, those that followed the neo-liberal “Washington Consensus” policy prescriptions failed miserably. In the decade to come, African countries will benefit from reflecting on these successes and failures, and on what they mean for their own development strategies.
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Date:
7 May 2013
The US Supreme Court recently began deliberations in a case that will determine whether human genes may be patented. But we already know that permitting gene patents results in inefficiencies – including monopoly profits and a failure to maximize the use of knowledge – that impede the pace of innovation.
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Date:
8 April 2013
Despite persistent deflation and tepid economic growth, things are looking up for Japan under the new Prime Minister. Shinzo Abe’s Keynesian-inspired reform programme is essentially a replay of what Takahashi Korekiyo achieved in the 1930s, when Japan escaped the Great Depression with a triple-barrelled blast of monetary, fiscal and structural stimulus.
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Date:
5 March 2013
While Europe’s leaders shy away from the word, the reality is that much of the European Union is in depression. Indeed, it will now take a decade or more to recover from the losses incurred by misguided austerity policies – a process that may eventually force Europe to let the euro die in order to save itself.
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Date:
7 February 2013
Despite the global economy’s myriad of problems, leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, particularly those from Europe, seemed more interested in celebrating the euro’s survival, rather than in tackling long-term concerns. Over the last 25 years, our world has moved from one dominated by two superpowers to being dominated by just one, and now to a leaderless, multi-polar world. While we may talk about the G-7, or G-8, or G-20, the more apt description is G-0.
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Date:
8 January 2013
As global leaders continue to deal with their economies’ immediate problems, long-term issues such as global warming, inequality and poverty are being compromised – with potentially dangerous ramifications. Although today’s crises undoubtedly warrant immediate action, we should be asking whether we are responding in ways that will exacerbate our long-term problems.
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Date:
7 December 2012
After a hard-fought campaign, it seems that not much has changed in American politics. Rather, the main cause for celebration has been that America has avoided policies that would have pushed it closer to recession and increased inequality further.
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Date:
2 November 2012
The world has a lot riding on the upcoming U.S. presidential elections. Overwhelmingly, non-US citizens favour Barack Obama’s re-election over a victory for his challenger, Mitt Romney – and for good reason.
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Date:
5 October 2012
Central banks on both sides of the Atlantic took extraordinary monetary-policy measures in September, sending stock markets soaring. But politicians – and markets – in both Europe and America are mistaken if they believe that monetary policy can restore economic growth and boost employment.
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Date:
5 September 2012
Mitt Romney may not be a tax evader, but he certainly is a tax avoider on a grand scale. And the problem is not just Romney; writ large, his level of tax avoidance makes it difficult to finance the public goods without which a modern economy cannot flourish – and weakens the bonds of trust that hold a society together.
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Date:
8 August 2012
Resources should be a blessing, not a curse; yet contrary to common sense, resource-rich countries in Africa have tend to experience less economic growth in the long run than those deprived of natural riches. The new discoveries of natural resources in several African countries – including Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, and Mozambique – thus raises an important question: will these newly enriched countries be able to avoid the “resource curse”?
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Date:
4 July 2012
The EU summit, held in Brussels last week, managed to bring about some much needed, albeit temporary, relief for the euro. Nevertheless, Europe's leaders have once again failed to address the region’s fundamental weaknesses and confidence in Europe’s periphery is now waning.
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Date:
11 June 2012
Growing inequality in the U.S. is not only killing the economy, but it threatens to undermine the nation’s values and identity. America today can no longer regard itself as the land of opportunity that it once was, with equality of opportunity less evident than in Europe.
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Date:
22 May 2012
The pharmaceutical industry today is a broken intellectual-property regime, which holds back on the development and availability of cheap drugs for the sake of profit maximisation. But it doesn’t have to be this way. An international effort by the World Health Organisation may now represent a once-in-a-generation opportunity to remedy a long-standing and egregious inequity in health care.
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Date:
9 May 2012
Europe’s single-minded focus on austerity is a result of a misdiagnosis of its problems; and the fact that so many economies are vulnerable to natural disasters only makes the man-made disaster of austerity all the more tragic. Accordingly, the pain that Europe, especially its poor and young, is suffering as a result of its leaders’ willful ignorance of the lessons of the past is entirely unnecessary.
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Date:
11 April 2012
Rumours suggest that the US is likely to insist on maintaining the perverse selection process in which it gets to pick the World Bank’s president. But while Jim Yong Kim may be a good candidate, no single country should effectively decide who gets the job. Should America continue to insist on controlling the selection process, it is the Bank itself that would suffer.
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Date:
14 March 2012
Political change in Myanmar has been numbingly slow for a half-century, but a new leadership is trying to embrace rapid transition from within. However, the country is now being held back by the international sanctions that were imposed before its leaders turned away from authoritarianism and isolation.
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Date:
9 February 2012
There are several explanations for the ECB’s insistence on a "voluntary" restructuring of Greece's sovereign debt, none of which speaks well for the institution. Indeed, as we have seen elsewhere, institutions that are not democratically accountable tend to be captured by special interests.
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Date:
17 January 2012
The pragmatic commitment to growth that one sees in Asia and other emerging markets today stands in contrast to the West’s misguided policies, which, driven by ideology and vested interests, almost seem to reflect a commitment not to grow. As a result, global economic rebalancing is likely to accelerate, almost inevitably giving rise to political tensions.
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