In The News

The Markets Prey on Debt-Laden Nations

Joergen Oerstroem Moeller January 17, 2011
The world has gross savings of more than $61 trillion, reports the International Monetary Fund. Those holdings are highly imbalanced: China’s surplus is more than $4 trillion while the US owes $14 trillion. Investors relentlessly detect and predict trends in pursuit of higher profits. Japan, the US and many European nations carry high debt loads. The financial markets are impatient with low...

Lessons Learned, South Korea Makes Quick Economic Recovery

Martin Fackler January 17, 2011
During the 1997-98 Asian currency crisis, the International Monetary Fund forced tough medicine on South Korea with a tough bailout package and strict conditions. The nation endured high interest rates, massive company and bank closures, and yet recovered quickly by clearing bad debt and investing in education. Its economy now ranks 15th in the world. Now, some analysts suggest the US should...

Running the World, After the Crash

Richard Samans, Klaus Schwab, Mark Malloch-Brown January 13, 2011
The world is not so different from a small, connected community, confronting numerous challenges with consequences for all inhabitants. Resolution requires cooperation rather than competition that exacerbates the pressing global problems, including climate change, nuclear non-proliferation, financial regulation, poverty reduction, easing trade and other economic imbalances. The world’s most...

Asia: Eastern Billions Can Still Join the World

Nandan Nilekani January 5, 2011
With global economic recession, many nations look inward, prioritizing domestic concerns and rejecting globalization. But the inward focus may not last for long, predicts Nandan Nilekani, author and former chief executive of Infosys, writing for Financial Times. India’s and China’s growth, combined with their transition from rural agricultural economies to manufacturing giants, could deliver new...

Where Are the Jobs? For Many Companies, Overseas

Pallavi Gogoi January 4, 2011
The large and growing emerging markets of China, India and Brazil are a lure for multinational corporations in search of top revenue and profits. Job creation follows the markets, strengthening the middle class and education programs in emerging markets, particularly Asia. Companies like Caterpillar, Coca-Cola and DuPont hired more employees overseas in 2010 than in their home base of the US,...

The Rising Burden of Government Debt

Eswar Prasad, Mengjie Ding December 29, 2010
Nations hiked debt in recent years to escape economic crisis – with advanced economies doing most of the borrowing. Global debt is expected to more than double from $23 trillion in 2007 to $48 trillion in 2015. Emerging markets not only borrow less, but they also contribute more to economic growth, report Eswar Prasad and Mengjie Ding for the Brookings Institution. The pair examines debt not only...

Our Dickensian Economy

Alan S. Blinder December 21, 2010
Britain’s prolific novelist Charles Dickens, 1812 to 1870, spent part of his childhood visiting his father in debtor’s prison, an experience that influenced themes of alienation, ambition and inequality in his work. Economist Alan Blinder, writing for the Wall Street Journal, evokes Dickens, detailing how US government policies promote growing social divides: unemployment concentrated among those...