News and Analysis: 18-30 May 2017 | EmergingFrontierMarkets.com

Based in: Manila, Philippines

Posted on Tue, 30 May 2017:

Michael Spence: How to be an open economy, Project Syndicate, 22 May 17 [via Council on Foreign Relations (blog)]:
Policy makers have long had to strike a balance between the abstract principle of economic openness and concrete measures to limit the worst effects of structural change, writes 2001 Nobel Laureate

Benjamin Zycher: The absurdity that is the Paris climate agreement, Amer Enterp Inst, 25 May 17:
Apart from the absence of an enforcement mechanism, notice as well that the agreement contains no actual target for global reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, writes Inst resident scholar

Jeffrey Sachs: How Trump could make US a climate pariah over Paris pact, CNN, 18 Apr 17 [via Columbia U]:
When the US pulled out of Kyoto, it could argue that most of the world was not obligated by the Kyoto Protocol. If Trump pulls out of Paris, it will be 195-to-1 against the US, writes Ctr Sustainable Devt dir

Posted on Sun, 28 May 2017:

G7 leaders divided on climate change, closer on trade issues, Reuters, 27 May 17:
Under pressure from Group of Seven allies in a summit in Italy, US Pres Trump backed a pledge to fight protectionism on Sat, but refused to endorse a global climate change accord, saying he needed more time to decide

Romer slaughters kittens, New York Univ (blog), 25 May 17:
It is no surprise that the World Bank has its own homegrown insurgents ready to wage their version of asymmetric warfare.. One of those ways is via rumors, writes WB chief economist (Romer's internal WB blog)

At the World Bank, a shortage of concrete (language), NYT, 14 Apr 16:
A computer analysis of the bank's annual reports found a sharp decline in factual precision, replaced by a bureaucratic gobbledygook whose meaning is hard to decipher (Stanford Literary Lab: Bankspeak - The language of WB reports) [Pls scroll to item No.9]

Posted on Thu, 25 May 2017:

Robert Shiller: Understanding today's stagnation, Project Syndicate, 23 May 17 [via Financial Advisor Mag]:
The fact that people are willing to tie up their money for ten years at such low rates suggests that there has been a long trend toward pessimism, writes 2013 Nobel Laureate

World Bank's star economist is sidelined in war over words, Bloomberg News, 25 May 17:
The WB's chief economist, Paul Romer, is relinquishing oversight of the Development Economics Group, the bank's research hub, after researchers rebelled against his efforts to make them communicate more clearly

Why Vietnam will shape the future of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Brookings (blog), by M Solis, 19 May 17:
While Vietnam stands to enhance the value of the TPP in several ways, the country is in fact with the most to lose from the US dropping out of the trade agreement, writes Inst senior fellow

Posted on Tue, 23 May 2017:

Peter Morici: Trump's mad-genius budget cuts the bloat that’s strangling us, MarketWatch, 23 May 17:
Pres Trump's budget is at once madness and genius. If its essential provisions are preserved, the plan would avert fiscal calamity, and restore prosperity and hope for the nation's most struggling citizens, writes Univ Maryland economist

Larry Summers: Trump's budget is simply ludicrous, Harvard Univ (blog), 23 May 17:
The budget forecasts that US growth will rise to 3.0 percent because of the admin’s policies - largely its tax cuts and perhaps also its regulatory policies. Fair enough if you believe in tooth-fairies, writes Pres Obama’s Natl Econ Council fmr dir

War or peace? Putting a price on the Israeli-Palestinian impasse, Newsweek, 09 June 15 [courtesy Rand]:
Today, more than 90 percent of Israelis and Palestinians were born after 1948 and have known nothing other than some version of the impasse, write Corp intl vice pres; and senior economist (Calculating the costs of the conflict)

Posted on Sun, 21 May 2017:

Led by Japan, Pacific Rim nations agree to pursue revival of Trans-Pacific Partnership pact, Japan Times, 21 May 17:
Despite the US withdrawal from TPP, Japan has been at the forefront of efforts to get the remaining 11 nations to pursue the pact, which members also see as a way to contain an increasingly dominant China, which is not in it

Lomborg: Changing the narrative about a least-developed country – Haiti, Project Syndicate, 20 May 17 [via Gulf Times/Qatar]:
The most common narrative we hear about Haiti is one of great need - the "poorest nation in the Western hemisphere", with weak infrastructure and health problems, writes Copenhagen Consensus Ctr dir (Haiti Priorise project)

Swanson and Mandel: Robots will save the US economy, WSJ, 14 May 17 [courtesy Amer Enterp Inst]:
Some anxious forecasters project that robotics, automation and artificial intelligence will soon devastate the job market. Yet others predict a productivity fizzle, write Entropy Economics pres; and U Penn senior fellow

Posted on Thu, 18 May 2017:

Foreign-aid advocates and fiscal hawks all like Trump's nominee to head USAID, Wash Post, 12 May 17:
The nominee, Mark Green, a fmr Republican congressman and ex-ambassador to Tanzania, serves as a rebuttal to the hyper-partisanship of Washington. Republicans said Green would promote liberty and human rights. Democrats said he would work in a bipartisan fashion

New evidence overturns traditional approaches to investment in agriculture, World Bank, 22 Feb 17:
The majority of the world's poor live in rural areas, with 70 percent of the rural poor working in agriculture. Govts in developing nations spend large amounts on agric extension services, but there are many other constraints that impede investments

Darwin visits Wall Street, MIT News, 17 May 17:
Instead of regarding investors simply as either rational or irrational, a new book explains how their behavior may be "maladaptive" - unsuited to the rapidly changing environments that shifting markets present

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