In The News

Project Syndicate: The Risk of a New Economic Non-Order

Mohamed A. El-Erian September 19, 2017
The current global economic order is under strain, and the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund could pursue reforms and take steps to adjust to new economic realities, preventing disintegration and disorder, argues Mohamed A. El-Erian for Project Syndicate. The current order is rooted in “an economic paradigm that aimed to promote win-win interactions among countries, emphasizing trade...

Global Finance: Trade Winds Shifting

Jonathan Gregson August 5, 2017
After years of stagnation, international trade growth is anticipated at 4 percent this year. “Many factors could explain what appears to be a secular decline in global trade: lower levels of business confidence and investment; demand cycles and their impact on commodity prices; the maturing of global value chains, which have in turn triggered structural changes in the composition of cross-border...

The Economist: Unintended Effects of Rules Aimed at Stopping Financial Crimes

August 3, 2017
As the old saying goes, everyone pays the cost of crime. Costs include direct losses and indirect regulations. The Economist explains that banks are “lending less and shedding customers” due to “strict new rules on capital and liquidity” and avoiding high-risk customers and sectors. Poorest nations are most affected. “Banks in Africa, eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean have been...

Spiegel Online: Only Radical Thinking and Action Can Tame Globalization

Alexander Jung July 8, 2017
A growing global economy expanded the middle class and wealth for many nations that were once poor. That is of little comfort to the 800 million people who live in extreme poverty. Widening inequality and climate change are serious threats. “The G-20 nations represent two-thirds of the global population, just over three-quarters of its economic output and four-fifths of its greenhouse gas...

The Economist: What If the Bitcoin Bubble Bursts?

June 14, 2017
Bitcoin is a digital currency with algorithms used for ownership and trades. Security depends on the secrecy of those algorithms. A purchase of $100 worth of bitcoin in July 2010 would be worth about $4.6 million today. Overall market value of such currencies is about $80 billion. An article from the Economist questions bitcoin’s sustainability and whether the currency is more like gold or 17th...

Wall Street Journal: China Draws More Students Back From Abroad

Te-Ping Chen March 2, 2017
More than 500,000 Chinese students studied at foreign universities in 2015 with the United States as the most popular destination followed by the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. “A rise in incomes and frustration with China’s ultracompetitive education system produced a study-abroad fervor of historic proportions,” reports Te-Ping Chen for the Wall Street Journal. “In recent years, around...

Project Syndicate: The WTO Reborn?

Arvind Subramanian February 23, 2017
The World Trade Organization, a multilateral trade group with 164 members, has been marginalized in recent years due to increasing preference for bilateral and regional deals, explains Arvind Subramanian, chief economic adviser to the government of India in an essay for Project Syndicate. He points to three developments that could prompt the world to reconsider multilateralism and revive the WTO...