News and Analysis: 17-29 Apr 2015 | EmergingFrontierMarkets.com

Based in: Manila, Philippines

Posted on Wed, 29 Apr 15:

Greek finance minister denies being sidelined from debt talks, Guardian, 28 Apr 15:
After 3 months of turbulent talks, and with cash reserves running perilously low, Greece's leftist-led coalition reshuffled its negotiating team on Mon. It was announced that the UK-educated economist, Euclid Tsakalotos, would be the pointman between Athens and foreign lenders at the EU, the European Central Bank and the IMF

Greg Mankiw: Retesting Congress in Free Trade 101, NYT, 26 Apr 15 [PDF, via Harvard]:
If Congress were to take an exam in Economics 101, would it pass? We are about to find out. The issue at hand is whether Congress will give Pres Obama "fast track" authority to negotiate a trade deal with our trading partners in the Pacific, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), writes Pres GW Bush's Council Econ Advisers' chair / Harvard prof

Nook & Cranny: Jagdish Bhagwati: Dawn of a new system, Finance & Development, Dec '13:
The correct policy must allow accession to the TPP provided a country liberalizes trade, without the side conditions that are unrelated to trade. Acceptance of such demands should not be a prerequisite for joining the TPP. Put it this way: If I want to join a golf club, I need to play golf. But I should not have to go to church and sing hymns with the other club members, writes Columbia Univ prof

Posted on Mon, 27 Apr 15:

Report ranks happiest countries, Sustainable Dev't Solutions Network, 23 Apr 15:
Since it was 1st published in '12, the World Happiness Report demonstrated that well-being and happiness are critical indicators of a nation's econ and social dev't. This year, the countries with the highest levels of happiness are Switzerland, Iceland, Denmark, Norway and Canada. The report is edited by U British Columbia's Helliwell, LSE's Layard and Columbia U's Sachs

What more can economic analysts offer policy makers on subsidy reform?, Brookings Inst (blog), 1 Apr 15:
Policy makers considering subsidy reform, and indeed any policy reform, are of course interested in the impact on poverty. But, equally, they are aware of the broader political economy of subsidy reform. More generally, they are interested in the full range of winners and losers from the reform, write fmr Tunisian Central Bank Governor Nabli and Cornell U's Kanbur

Coffers: Tapping a moral philosopher to solve a money manager's dilemma, Stanford U, 15 Apr 15:
On one level, it is a technical solution to a problem in modern portfolio management. On another level, it's a problem that has preoccupied philosophers for centuries: How do we balance fairness to individuals with the goal of doing what's best for society as a whole? Perhaps it's no surprise, then, that a prof has tapped into the theories of a renowned philosopher of social justice

Posted on Fri, 24 Apr 15:

Asia may face slower future growth, say top economists, IMF Survey Mag, 17 Apr 15:
After a period of rapid growth, Asia should expect much slower econ expansion in the future as the region is likely to revert to levels of average growth, a fmr US Treas secy has told an audience at the IMF-World Bank meetings. Larry Summers's remarks came as part of a discussion with Raghuram Rajan, Reserve Bank of India governor, about the outlook for Asian economies

Edward Lazear: Want to reduce inequality? Consult China, Vietnam and India, WSJ, 31 Mar 15 [via Hoover Inst]:
Pres Obama has chided those who believe "the market will take care of everything." It's a "simple theory," he said. "It fits well on a bumper sticker. Here's the problem: It doesn't work. It's never worked." The pres ignores that the past 3 decades have seen a dramatic improvement in the standard of living of the world's poor, writes Pres GW Bush's Council Econ Advisers chair

Coffers: The birth of modern finance, MIT Magazine, 1st Qtr '14:
One of Paul Samuelson's significant contributions to finance was mentoring a rather unlikely PhD candidate - a math student from Caltech who was rejected from every other econ program he applied to. That young maverick was Robert Merton. What Francis Walker and Davis Dewey did for econ at the turn of the century, Samuelson and Merton did for finance near the end of the century

Posted on Wed, 22 Apr 15:

2015 is a critical year for humanity - 17 world-leading scientists, Earth Statement, 22 Apr 15:
The Earth Statement clarifies what the int'l climate agreement in Paris in Dec should achieve in order to provide the world with a good chance of avoiding dangerous climate change. Its launch on Earth Day is an opportunity for all to join the scientists' call for bold action by decision-makers (22 Apr - International Mother Earth Day)

Ban Ki-Moon: The Mediterranean is becoming a sea of misery, Social Europe Journal, 21 Apr 15:
The death of hundreds of migrants off the coast of Libya is not only deeply saddening - it should shock the global conscience. More than twice as many migrants have died at sea in the past year than on the Titanic. And this truly titanic humanitarian tragedy highlights yet again the need to address the plight of migrants, writes UN sec-gen

Taming the ticking mind, Harvard Gazette, 16 Dec 14:
"When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight," said Samuel Johnson, "it concentrates his mind wonderfully." Most of us, spared such an imperative, carry on in a less-concentrated state. Economist Sendhil Mullainathan, a fmr MacArthur Fellow, describes the curious equation that exists between scarcity and its opposite number, abundance

Posted on Mon, 20 Apr 15:

The elusive pursuit of inflation, IMF Survey Mag, 17 Apr 15:
Having worked for years to tame inflation, the world's central banks are now facing an increasing challenge to reawaken it. In a Spring Meetings seminar, the causes of low inflation and the tools to raise it were discussed by a panel made up of S Fischer, Fed vice-chair; D Lipton, IMF's No.2; P Praet, European Central Bank's exec board member; and T Ito, Columbia U prof

'Resilience indicator' reveals which emerging markets are prepared for financial crisis, Int'l Bus.Times, 3 Apr 15:
Argentina, Brazil and Chile are setting themselves up for disaster. So says an economist, Liliana Rojas-Suarez, who has devised a way to gauge an emerging country's ability to survive a global financial crisis (Rojas-Suarez: Could you take another 2008? A resilience test for emerging markets, CGDev [blog])

Nook & Cranny: Smuggling is a reaction to border controls, not the cause of migration, Oxford U, 7 Oct 13:
While sustained demand for cheap labor in agric, services and other informal sectors has been the main driver of this migration, a significant, but substantial minority is fleeing conflict in their origin nations. There is a strong parallel between the so-called 'fight against illegal migration' in the Mediterranean and the situation on the US-Mexican border, writes Oxf Int'l Migration Inst co-dir

Posted on Fri, 17 Apr 15:

Greek euro exit fears rise as IMF rejects loan payment delay, AFP, 17 Apr 15 [via Seychelles News Agency]:
Top European officials and Greece's fin minister were on Thu forced to play down fears that the nation was poised to exit the euro zone, after the IMF rejected suggestions that Athens would postpone loan repayments. But the perilous state of Greece's gov't finances was laid bare when the PM confirmed he was seeking support from the wealthy Greek Orthodox Church

Bits & Bytes: Putting technology in its place, MIT Technology Review, 15 Apr 15:
After getting his PhD in computer science and working at Microsoft, Kentaro went to India with noble intentions for using technology to improve people's lives. He and his colleagues launched dozens of projects that sought to use computers and Internet connectivity to improve education and reduce poverty. Now he's wrestling with why the impact was so small

Robert Litan: Economists - Don't leave home without one, McKinsey, 15 Apr 15 [courtesy Brookings Inst]:
As biz leaders seek to stay ahead of the curve, they should ensure that somewhere in their range of view are the ideas of economists. Not forecasts or models, or the dry parade of graphs and equations, but rather economists' insights and ideas, which sometimes have an enormous impact on the evolution of industries, writes author of The Trillion Dollar Economists (2014) / fmr Inst vice-pres

EmergingFrontierMarkets.com

emerging and frontier markets:

the unofficial field guide