News and Analysis: 19-30 Oct 2015 | EmergingFrontierMarkets.com

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Posted on Fri, 30 Oct 2015:

M Spence and K Warsh: The Fed has hurt business investment, WSJ, 26 Oct 15 [via Hoover Inst]
On his recent book tour, fmr Fed chair Bernanke stated that low long-term interest rates are not the Fed's doing. Low rates result from a shortage of good capital projects. If there were good investment projects, capital would flow and interest rates would rise, write Nobel Laureate '01; and fmr Fed governor (Summers: This critique of the Fed isn't backed by logic nor evidence)

Sovereign wealth funds in the new era of oil, IMF (blog), by Arezki, Mazarei & Prasad, 26 Oct 15:
As a result of the oil price plunge, the major oil-exporting nations are facing budget deficits for the 1st time in years. Some have started drawing on their buffers. In the short run, this is not cause for alarm. But what will happen if low oil prices persist, and how will policy makers react?, ask IMF's commodities unit chief; Mideast/Central Asia dept dep dir; and divn dep chief

Cesar Hidalgo: Think like an author, not an owner, Harvard Business Review, 15 Oct 15:
You might have never heard of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, but in the late 1920s he was more famous than Mickey Mouse. Oswald's story began when Walt Disney and his star graphic artist moved to Tinseltown, where the duo gave birth to Oswald, who became the new darling of the silver screen. But the duo did not own their creation, writes author of Why Information Grows: The evolution of order, from atoms to economies (2015)

Posted on Wed, 28 Oct 2015:

More than 60% of world's economies improved their business rules in past year - Doing Business report, World Bank, 27 Oct 15:
Singapore retains its top spot as the most biz-friendly regulatory environment, with New Zealand in 2nd place; Denmark (3); S.Korea (4); and Hong Kong, China (5). The world's top 10 improvers are Costa Rica, Uganda, Kenya, Cyprus, Mauritania, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Jamaica, Senegal, and Benin (Country rankings)

Hein de Haas: Europe's disgrace, Univ Amsterdam (blog), 22 Sep 15:
The current crisis in the Balkan region clearly shows that intensifying border controls at one crossing point (such as building a fence along the Hungarian-Serbian border) only leads to a geographical reorientation of crossing points. It is therefore outrageous that politicians still get away with making us believe that border controls can 'solve' refugee crises, writes fmr Oxford Int'l Migration Inst co-dir / Univ Amsterdam prof

Think the world's getting worse? Think again, says economist, Thomson Reuters Foundation, 10 Aug 15:
Turn on the news or listen to doom-mongers in politics and the media, and you could be forgiven for thinking the world is a more violent and unequal place than ever. But economist Max Roser, currently a fellow of the Inst for New Econ Thinking at Oxford, points out that we've never had it so good in many ways (OurWorldinData.org)

Posted on Mon, 26 Oct 2015:

Kharas and McArthur: Dispatch from Italy - Ending rural hunger, Brookings (blog), 21 Oct 15:
Italy hosted 2 major events for global food/nutrition security last week: the Committee on World Food Security's annual session in Rome; and a gathering of leading figures to honor World Food Day in Milan. This year, we were privileged to be selected to present the results of our Inst research on ending rural hunger, write Inst senior fellows (EndingRuralHunger.org)

Economic development needs new terminology and metrics, Cambridge Univ, 3 Oct 15:
New terminology is needed to move beyond 'macroeconomics' and 'emerging economies' in order to identify new areas of growth, says a study on "fast-expanding markets". This new terminology reflects the fact that China, which was recently classified as a 'developing economy' and an 'emerging market', is now the 2nd-largest economy in the world

The race for global city status accelerates, ATKearney Global Cities Index, Aug '15:
While European cities prevail today, North American cities show greater potential, especially in innovation. And although top cities in China significantly outperform those in India, competition is tightening. Today's 'global elite' list -- that is, those that made it to the top 25 in both performance and potential -- comprises just 16 cities

Posted on Fri, 23 Oct 2015:

Long view of China suggests inevitable slowdown, Dallas Fed Economic Letter, by A Cheremukhin, Oct '15 [pdf]:
China has grown at an average annual rate of 9.4% since beginning its economic reforms in '78 -- an extraordinary performance reminiscent of the much smaller Asian Tiger economies of S.Korea and Taiwan decades earlier. However, the pace of expansion is bound to slow down as China approaches the technological frontier, writes bank's senior res economist

Thomas Piketty: A practical vision of a more equal society, NY Review of Books, 25 June 15 (transl. from French by A Shugaar):
Anthony Atkinson occupies a unique place among economists. During the past half-century, in defiance of prevailing trends, he managed to place the question of inequality at the center of his work. In his new book, Inequality: What Can Be Done?, he provides us with the broad outlines of a new radical reformism, writes author of Capital in the Twenty-first Century (2014)

Coffee/Tea Room: Steven Pinker -- Many of the alleged rules of writing are actually superstitions, Guardian, 6 Oct 15:
I have long recognized the need for a style guide based on modern linguistics and cognitive science. The last straw in my decision to sit down and write the book was getting back a manuscript that had been mutilated by a copy editor who was mindlessly enforcing rules that had been laid out in some ancient style book as if they were the Ten Commandments, writes author of The Sense of Style (2014)

Posted on Wed, 21 Oct 2015:

Leaders unite in calling for a price on carbon ahead of Paris climate talks, IMF/ World Bank/ OECD, 19 Oct 15 [via WB]:
For the 1st time, an unprecedented alliance of heads of state, city and state leaders, with the support of heads of leading companies, have joined forces to urge countries and companies around the globe to put a price on carbon. The Carbon Pricing Panel includes the leaders of Germany, Chile, France, Ethiopia, Mexico, Philippines, California's governor, and Rio de Janeiro's mayor

Putting social progress on par with prosperity, Harvard Mag, Nov/Dec '15:
What are the ingredients of a healthy, inclusive society--one that offers its citizens opportunity, happiness, and a positive quality of life? Acc. to Harvard's Michael Porter, models of human development based on econ growth alone are incomplete. He considers the Social Progress Index "the first to measure social progress independently of gross domestic product (GDP)"

Coffee/Tea Room: 25 best jobs for work-life balance, Glassdoor (blog), 20 Oct 15:
Maintaining a healthy work-life balance can be tough in today's work environment, but some jobs allow for more flexibility than others. So where do you turn to get a job that won't leave you working 24/7? That's where we come in. This list was compiled based entirely on employee feedback shared on our site over the past year

Posted on Mon, 19 Oct 2015:

More execs should have gone to jail for causing Great Recession - Bernanke, USA Today, 5 Oct 15:
With publication of his memoir, Bernanke has some thoughts about what went right and what went wrong. For one thing, he says that more corporate execs should have gone to jail for their misdeeds. The Justice Dept and other agencies focused on threatening to indict financial firms, he notes, "but it would have been my preference to have more investigation of individual action"

Kemal Dervis: Will technology kill convergence?, Project Syndicate, 15 Oct 15 [via Brookings Inst]:
At last week's IMF/WB meetings in Lima, one dominant discussion topic was the slowdown in emerging-markets growth. With the emerging markets now acting as a drag on global growth, many argue that their era of rapid expansion -- and their quest to achieve convergence with advanced-country income levels -- is over. Are the doomsayers right?, asks Inst vice-pres

Nook & Cranny: Brian Arthur -- Economic complexity - A different way to look at the economy, Medium.com, 31 Oct 14:
Standard economics is being challenged by a number of new approaches. One of these, complexity economics, got its start in '87 when a now-famous conference of scientists and economists convened by physicist Philip Anderson and economist Kenneth Arrow met to discuss the economy as an evolving complex system, writes Santa Fe Inst external prof / author of Complexity and the Economy (2014)

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