Bridges to Somewhere

Following the financial crisis of 2008, the developed world still faces weak growth prospects and dim employment forecasts, and leaders in the US and Europe urge debt reduction. In this Foreign Policy article, Justin Yifu Lin of the World Bank makes a strong case for global infrastructure initiative, encouraging developed countries to invest billions of dollars on infrastructure projects at home as well as throughout the developing world. Lin warns against perceiving the investment in the infrastructure of developing countries as charity. Besides reducing poverty in developing countries, such investments would boost exports and manufacturing, create jobs and generate growth in advanced economies, since most of the capital goods required to build this infrastructure are created in the United States and Europe. Policymakers have the opportunity to take advantage of the globalized economy by using the demand in one part of the world to increase supply – by way of jobs – in another. – YaleGlobal