 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Sign up to receive automatic updates to RealTime Economic Issues Watch.
A website forum in which senior fellows of the Peterson Institute for International Economics discuss and debate their responses to global economic and financial developments as they occur each day and offer insights that others might overlook.
Meeting in London last April, the G-20 leaders declared “that the heads and senior leadership of the international financial institutions [i.e., the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund] should be appointed through an open, transparent, and merit-based selection process [pdf].” When you look at the selection processes for [...]
Predictably, and perhaps appropriately, the flood of remembrances of Robert McNamara is focusing on his role as the architect of the Vietnam War. Yet McNamara was also a transformative president of the World Bank, shaping both that institution and the larger development enterprise in ways that are still felt today. McNamara [...]
Many times, since I first used the phrase in 1989, the “Washington Consensus” has been proclaimed dead, most recently by Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain at the press conference following the G-20 summit in London earlier this month. Yet most of the governments of the world seem to be determined to follow the precepts [...]
Forecasters at international organizations often find themselves in a delicate position. On the one hand, they have unparalleled access to hard data and intelligence about what is happening in every corner of the world economy. On the other hand, their main shareholders—the United States and larger European countries—do not want to hear predictions that are [...]
The IMF is signalling that it will further revise down its global growth forecast. This is after cutting the forecast sharply in October and again in November. Their latest published view is growth in 2009 will be 2.2 percent year-on-year, and 2.4 percent fourth quarter on fourth quarter. This view is dated [...]
Later this week, finance ministers and central bank governors from around the world will assemble in Washington for the IMF and World Bank annual meetings. To a man (and a few women) they will be tempted to take a leaf from the playbook of the US presidential candidates and blame Washington for all the economic and financial the problems facing the world.