In The News

A Valuable Stick

October 1, 2002
Private creditors who hold the sovereign debt of nations argue that collective action clauses are the best way to deal with countries on the brink of loan default. Collective action clauses entail a majority decision among creditors that will prevent individual creditors from blocking debt restructuring. When a country faces a cash-flow problem, creditors tend to withdraw funds or block debt...

Final Text of Environment Deal Hammered Out

John Mason September 3, 2002
With the understanding that environmental issues are not containable to any one region, representatives from all over the world have gathered at the World Summit on Sustainable Development to finalize a global agreement of cooperation. Issues on the table include universal access to clean water, globalization of trade and finance, new targets on renewable energy production, protection of fish...

Brazil Relief Rests on Hopefuls' IMF Stances

Raymond Colitt August 14, 2002
After the 1998 Russian financial crisis and Argentina's economic collapse, the International Monetary Fund's latest target for support is Brazil’s struggling economy, lending that country 30 billion US dollars last week. This seemed like good news for Brazil which hoped that the IMF loan would attract international investment. However, despite the IMF's support, international...

Aids to slash South African savings funds

James Lamont August 5, 2002
The Aids crisis in South Africa is presenting new challenges to the pension fund industry. As death rates increase – life expectancy for males is expected to fall to age 38 by 2010 – the costs of death benefits and taxes will halve many pension funds. These predictions have led some portfolio managers to limit contributions to death benefits. South African companies still don’t see Aids as...

The War on Terrorism Takes Aim at Crime

James Dao April 7, 2002
The United States has expanded the global war on terrorism to include fighting drug and crime syndicates that operate in countries across Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas. Officials are targeting these networks because evidence shows a complex nexus between crime, drugs, and terrorism. The link between these networks has strengthened since the end of the Cold War, when terrorist...

An Idea that Gained Currency but Lost Clarity

James Tobin September 11, 2001
James Tobin, the economist from whom the ‘Tobin tax’ takes its name, explains his reasons for a tax on currency speculation and what problems he originally intended the tax to solve. The tax he proposed was meant to be levied on all currency transactions. The cost of paying the tax would reduce de-stabilizing speculation and also give national central banks enough space to control their short-...