What role did global imbalances play in the center (2007-) financial crisis? What were the primary causes of theses imbalances? What are the difficulties involved in resolving them?
Just as it takes two to tango, so current account imbalances require offsetting capital flows to keep international payments in balance. Global imbalances thus have two drivers: borrowers and lenders. In the middle of the last decade, the US’ growing twin fiscal and current account deficits were the focus of much debate. Continue reading →
Today marks the launch of Columbia’s Center on Global Economic Governance (CGEG), with Alan Krueger, Chairman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers delivering the keynote address at its opening conference.
The concept behind CGEG is to bring together the best minds, from Columbia faculty and from outside, to focus on key issues in global economic governance and develop effective policy approaches.
With developed economies largely stagnant, emerging markets facing their own challenges, and growing intra-national equality the world over, we need now more than ever a new approach to global economic governance that puts people first. The advent of the G20 as the premier forum for global governance widened the circle beyond the traditional G7/G8 configuration, but its initial impetus has dissipated, while issues of legitimacy remain to be addressed.
With Jeffrey Sachs and PEPM’s own Guillermo Calvo on the panel alongside Krueger and others on the panel, I’m really looking forward to the opening conference.
You can watch the livestream here from 9am EST / 2pm GMT.
You can find my own recent thoughts on the evolution of Global Economic Governance here.
Leading lights of the economics profession came together with top policymakers and journalists to appraise the state of current economic thinking, and to chart a better way forward.
The IMF today published its latest World Economic Outlook. According to Chief Economist, Oliver Blanchard, the world economy has been on a rollercoaster these past six months. Recent market jitters over Spain, and collective schizophrenia between growth and austerity, would suggest that we have just come over the crest of a peak rather than having reached the end of the ride.
First constituted in 1975 as a G-6 meeting of advanced economies’ finance ministers, Canada joined the following year, making it a G-7. Beginning in 1994, G-7 meetings were followed by ‘political’ meetings, to which Russia was invited. Russia became a full member of the G-8 in 1997. It participated in all discussions, bar some that related to financial issues. Until 2003, the G-7 continued to meet separately in advance of the G-8. Continue reading →
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