News and Analysis: 9-20 Apr 12 | EmergingFrontierMarkets.com

Based in: Manila, Philippines

Posted on Fri, 20 Apr 12:

BRICS demand bigger IMF role before giving it cash, Reuters, 20 Apr 12 [courtesy ThisDay/Nigeria];
The IMF's bid to win a big boost in funding to handle the euro-zone debt crisis hit a speed bump on Thu when Brazil demanded more power at the IMF for emerging economies as a condition for lending it extra cash. Brazil’s finance minister laid out the terms for a deal after a meeting with fellow BRICS nations Russia, India, China and S Africa (Global economy's 'timid' recovery faces high risks - Lagarde | European banks remain under pressure from weak growth)

Who lost Latin America?, Forbes, by M Hulbert, 17 Apr 12:
Things haven't been going well in LatAm for int'l oil companies seeking access to resource riches. Cristina Kirchner is of course following in the footsteps of her counterpart in Ecuador, who's been busy increasing state takes of natural resource rents. Mexico has suffered a slow and painful death under Pemex, while it has become pure farce in Venezuela. And Bolivia turned the resource screw back in '06. "Expropriation central" might be overstating things, but LatAm has seen a noticeable shift towards resource nationalism in the past 2 years

P Krugman and R Wells: Economy killers - Inequality and Republican ignorance, The Occupy Handbook, 15 Apr 12 [courtesy Salon]:
America emerged from the Great Depression and WW2 with a much more equal distribution of income than it had in the 1920s; the society became middle-class in a way it hadn't been before. This new, more equal society persisted for 30 years. But then we began pulling apart. By 2007, America was about as unequal as it had been on the eve of the Great Depression, say Nobel Laureate '08/Princeton U prof, and co-author of Economics (Book launch at Peterson Inst)

Posted on Wed, 18 Apr 12:

Argentina's oil takeover rattles investors, AP, 18 Apr 12 [courtesy Today's Zaman/Turkey]:
Argentina's takeover of its top energy firm from Spain's Repsol might solve the nation's short-term energy needs, and thrills Argentines who blame privatizations for their economy's collapse a decade ago. But analysts say it sends a terrible signal to anyone wanting to invest in Argentina. The Argentine pres made Spain furious by decreeing that her gov't will recover YPF by expropriating Repsol's majority stake in the firm (Weisbrot: Argentina's critics are wrong again about renationalizing oil, Guardian)

Olivier Blanchard: Mediocre growth, high risks, and the long road ahead, Weblog at IMF, 17 Apr 12:
For the past 6 months, the world economy has been on what is best described as a roller coaster. Last autumn, a simmering European crisis became acute. Things have quieted down since, but an uneasy calm remains. This shapes our forecasts. Our baseline forecast is for low growth in advanced nations, esp. in Europe. But downside risks are very much present. Our forecasts for emerging and developing economies are for continued strong growth, although somewhat lower than in the past, says IMF chief economist/ fmr MIT prof

Cambodia's long awaited stock exchange begins trading, BBC News, 17 Apr 12:
Several int'l sanitation experts have said that Phnom Penh enjoys one of the best domestic water supplies in Southeast Asia. And the company responsible is hoping to capitalize as it becomes the 1st stock to be traded on the Cambodia Securities Exchange. The initial public offering (IPO) of 15% of the hitherto state-owned firm was 17-times oversubscribed. But one stock alone will not be enough to sustain the CSX. Two more state-owned firms are due to follow in the coming months (Burma's 1st stock exchange to open in 2015, AFP) [courtesy dvb]

Posted on Mon, 16 Apr 12:

Eric Weiner: Not their fathers' economics, Los Angeles Times, 11 Apr 12:
I work for the Inst for New Econ Thinking, a research/educ foundation in NY. Each year we hold an int'l conference, which this year is in Berlin. To incorporate some younger voices, we decided to invite a few students. So we put out word that we were accepting applications for 25 doctoral candidates from around the world to attend, all expenses paid. We figured that we would receive 100-150 responses. We got 563. Obviously, we were caught off-guard by the level of enthusiasm, says Inst senior editor (Wrap-up of confab's Day 1 and Day 2)

Coffers: It's time to look beyond overhyped BRICs, Globe and Mail, by B Milner, 9 Apr 12:
One big investment theme of the past decade was the BRICs, which stemmed from a view that the biggest emerging markets were the place to be because they were going to take over the world, says Ruchir Sharma of Morgan Stanley Invest. Mgmt, whose new book is Breakout Nations. While the popular invest. strategy - BRICs and commodities - is fast coming unglued, certain emerging and frontier economies are poised to become the next sexy investment story (Book excerpt) [courtesy Econ Times/ India]

Coffee/Tea Room: The world's rudest nations for travelers, Forbes, by A Bender, 3 Apr 12:
The travel search site Skyscanner.com surveyed its users about where the locals never smile and people are particularly unfriendly, and the nation with the most votes for rudest locals was…France, followed by Russia. Rounding out the top 4 were UK and Germany. The US placed 7th, behind China. The survey received over 1,200 responses, 65% from UK and Ireland, plus elsewhere in Europe, N America and Australia. (Possible inaccuracies in survey, StatsTrade)

Posted on Fri, 13 Apr 12:

"There is a democratic failure in Europe" - Q&A with Amartya Sen, Handelsblatt, by O Storbeck, 12 Apr 12 [courtesy Economics Intelligence]:
Q&A with Nobel Laureate '98/ Harvard prof. Q: Do you have the impression that economists and policy makers are learning the right lessons from the most severe econ and financial crisis since the Great Depression? Cutting back public debt has become the priority of policymakers in Europe. A lot of economists in Germany appreciate this. They argue that public finances have been on an unsustainable track. What's the alternative?

Lant Pritchett: Why Obama's World Bank pick is proving so controversial, New Republic, 11 Apr 12:
Picking a new WB head is a little like picking a new Pope. The process isn't just about the individual candidates for the position, but about the overall direction of the faith. And so, the controversy over Kim's nomination is not really about Kim himself. It's a debate about a philosophical schism in the development community, says Harvard prof (Sachs: Kim can reverse WB's poverty of ideas, Proj Syndicate, 30 Mar) [courtesy National/ UAE]

The challenges facing the Korean Peninsula, Weblog at Asia Foundation, Jan '12:
Q&A with Peter Beck, the foundation's new representative in Korea and fmr Int'l Crisis Group Northeast Asia dir. Q: You have lived and worked extensively in S Korea, and you're an expert on issues related to the region, esp. N Korea. How did you first become interested in Korea? N Korea's per capita income is less than 5% of the South's. What kind of issues does this raise on the Korean Peninsula and what can be done to improve this situation?

Posted on Wed, 11 Apr 12:

On the ground in Aceh, the best tsunami warning system is memory, CSMonitor, 11 Apr 12:
Thousands of people sought refuge at a mosque in Indonesia's Aceh Province following an 8.6 magnitude quake that shook the earth here for several minutes and sent panic through a city that still remembers with vivid clarity the tsunami that devastated the region in '04. After the initial temblor, people hopped on motorbikes with their entire families and headed for the hills

Alan Viard: Why Congress won't simplify the tax code, NPR Planet Money, 10 Apr 12 [courtesy Amer Enterp Inst]:
Americans deeply disagree about how much revenue the gov't should raise, how much of the tax burden should fall on the rich, and the size of the tax incentives, if any, that should be provided for saving and education. But we are all likely to agree that the tax code is too complex. So why did Congress and the pres allow this complexity to arise, and why don't they correct it?, asks Inst resident scholar (Tax for development, OECD | Why tax matters for dev't | Individual income tax and social security rate global survey 2011, KPMG [PDF, 3MB])

Learning big lessons on growth from three small countries, World Bank, 28 Mar 12:
The rapid growth of Singapore, Finland and Ireland (the 'Sifire' group) yields new lessons for low- and middle-income nations striving to accelerate growth, says a new book. The book - Some Small Countries Do It Better - notes that all 3 small, resource-poor nations sustained high average growth rates for over a decade. It argues that the path followed of 'frugal growth' constitutes a new twist to the East Asian development model

Posted on Mon, 9 Apr 12:

Dasgupta/Duraiappah: The mismeasure of wealth, Project Syndicate, 4 Apr 12 [courtesy Georgian Times]:
Without quick, decisive int'l action to prioritize sustainability over the status quo, a new report by the UN Sec-Gen's high-level panel on global sustainability risks suffering the fate of its '87 predecessor, the pioneering Brundtland Report, which introduced the concept of sustainability, and was then ignored. Will the world now rally, unlike in '87, to the panel's call to "transform the global economy"?, ask Cambridge U prof, and Int'l Human Dimensions Prog (in Bonn) on global environ. change dir (The lost wealth of nations)

Marcus Noland: The black hole of North Korea, Foreign Policy, 7 Mar 12:
The gov't of NKorea regards econ statistics as state secrets, which makes the country's economy difficult to study. I do careful survey research on the NKorean econ by surveying defectors, Chinese enterprises, and SKorean firms. Still, NKorea is so opaque that when I am asked where I get my data, I normally reply, "I make it up". And I'm only half-joking. Others seem less than half-serious, says Peterson Inst dep dir/ senior fellow

Alice Amsden: National companies or foreign affiliates - Whose contribution to growth is greater?, Columbia U, 13 Feb 12 [PDF]:
In the imperfect markets that characterize the BRICs and other emerging markets, where foreign affiliates may crowd out excellent but inexperienced nat'l firms, the question arises as to which type of enterprise policy makers should encourage for the long run. Historically, policy makers used tariffs to promote nat'l firms (a 'race to the bottom'). Today they use investments in sci/tech (a 'race to the top'), says MIT prof, who passed away in Mar (MIT PressLog | 3 questions on dev't and eradicating poverty)

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