News and Analysis: 01-15 Aug 2016 | EmergingFrontierMarkets.com

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Posted on Mon, 15 Aug 2016:

Larry Summers: The progressive case for championing pro-growth policies, FT, 08 Aug 16 [courtesy Harvard]:
Because those who champion strategies that center on business tax-cutting and deregulation and favor the wealthy have placed the most emphasis on growth, the objective of increasing growth has been discredited in the minds of progressives, writes Pres Obama's fmr Natl Econ Council dir

Andy Sumner: Is the end of three-quarters of global poverty closer than you think?, Ctr Global Devt (blog), 05 Aug 16:
Amartya Sen's famous study of famines found that a nation's people died not because of a food shortage but because some people lacked entitlements to that food. Is a similar situation now the case for global poverty?, asks King's College Lond reader

Luigi Zingales: Why a strong economy needs a strong press, Univ Chicago, 21 May 16:
Getting informed on all issues would be prohibitively expensive if we all had to collect information by ourselves. Hence it's important to reduce this cost of information, and that is ultimately what newspapers do, writes U Chicago prof

Posted on Fri, 12 Aug 2016:

Joseph Stiglitz: Globalization and its new discontents, Project Syndicate, 08 Aug 16 [via Korea Herald]:
15 years ago, I wrote a little book entitled "Globalization and its Discontents". How can something that our political leaders -- and many an economist -- said would make everyone better off be so reviled?, asks Nobel Laureate '01

Mahler/Laudicina: Four possible futures for America on its 250th birthday, Directors&Boards, 01 Aug 16:
"Man plans, God laughs." This wry Yiddish proverb reminds us that life is filled with unexpected twists and turns. When America marks its 250th birthday, will the nation be stable and prosperous?, ask AT Kearney emeritus chair; and Americas region head

Govt focus on cheap energy risks locking economies into costly energy projects, Lond Sch Econ, 11 July 16:
Govts investing in large energy projects and subsidy policies to encourage cheap energy risk locking their economies onto energy-intensive pathways that could be detrimental to their long-term prosperity, warns an LSE study

Posted on Wed, 10 Aug 2016:

Researchers or corporate allies? Think tanks blur the line, NYT, by Lipton & Williams, 07 Aug 16 [via Tampa Bay Times]:
Think tanks, which position themselves as "universities without students," have power in public debates because they are seen as researchers independent of moneyed interests. But in the chase for funds, think tanks are pushing agendas important to corporate donors (Full text of NYT article) [PDF, courtesy aiReform.com]

Brookings rebuts New York Times, 07 Aug 16:
An article published by The New York Times today, reported by Eric Lipton and Brooke Williams, portrays a picture of the Brookings Institution in a way that fundamentally misrepresents our mission and distorts how we operate, particularly in our relationship with corporate funders

Nook & Cranny: Angus Deaton -- Inevitable inequality?, Science, 23 May 14 [PDF, courtesy Princeton U]:
The distribution of wealth is more unequal than the distribution of income, and very high incomes will eventually pupate into very large fortunes, ultimately leading to a hereditary dystopia of idle rich. Piketty calls this "patrimonial capitalism", writes Nobel Laureate '15

Posted on Mon, 08 Aug 2016:

Edwin Truman: Chasing dirty money -- Have we lost sight of our objective?, Peterson Inst (blog), 05 July 16:
Estimates of the total amount of money laundered are of no practical value for policy guidance. A dollar associated with a terrorist attack has a larger anti-social value than a dollar associated with the sale of a package of marijuana in a state where such sales are not legal, writes Inst senior fellow

Fruman/Forneris: Choosing bet. promoting foreign and domestic investment - a false debate?, World Bank (blog), 06 June 16:
"Should we focus our efforts on foreign investment or domestic investment?" Policy makers in developing economies often ask this question when the Bank advises them on how to improve their nations' investment climate, write WB trade/competitiveness practice dir; and member

Goldin and Kutarna: Are we living in a New Renaissance?, Scientific American, 24 May 16:
We each have the perilous fortune to have been born into a historic moment when events and choices in our lifetime will dictate the circumstances of many lifetimes to come. Yes, it is the conceit of each generation to think so, write authors of Age of Discovery (2016) / Oxford Martin Sch dir; and fellow

Posted on Fri, 05 Aug 2016:

Global consumption of Earth's natural resources has more than tripled In 40 years, HuffPost, 02 Aug 16:
Limestone and steel for our homes, wheat and vegetables for our dinner, fossil fuels for our industries: we rely heavily on our planet's natural resources to survive. Yet we're using these up at such a pace that we may be "irreversibly" depleting some of them, says a new UN report. (UN media release)

Barry Eichengreen: Lessons from South Korea for China's economic rebalancing act, Caixin Online, 20 June 16:
A commonly used metaphor to describe the two economies is that Korea is a "minnow swimming alongside a whale." The contrast is between the whale, which is the world's 2nd largest economy, and the minnow, whose GDP is barely a tenth as large, writes U Calif-Berkeley prof

Nook & Cranny: Rita McGrath -- Lessons for entrepreneurs from the world's worst merger, Inc, 22 Jan 15:
15 years ago, AOL and Time Warner announced a merger. AOL, flush with a high market capitalization, used that inflated stock value to purchase the more established firm. What could possibly go wrong?, asks author of The End of Competitive Advantage (2013) (Sustainable and transient advantage), [Columbia U (blog)]

Posted on Wed, 03 Aug 2016:

Karl Sauvant: How can foreign direct investment fulfil its development potential?, OECD (blog),, 22 July 16:
FDI can be a powerful mechanism for mobilizing the tangible and intangible assets (such as capital, technology, skills, access to markets) that are essential for sustainable growth and development, writes Columbia U Sustainable Invest. Ctr senior fellow

Dominic Barton: Bridging the infrastructure gap, Project Syndicate, 14 June 16 [courtesy McKinsey]:
Infrastructure projects' unique ability to create jobs in the short term and boost productivity in the long term is well known to policy makers. But the conventional wisdom is that fiscal concerns make it impossible to marshal enough public funding, writes McKinsey global manag dir

Boardroom/C-suite: Want your company to have impact? Ask these four questions, Stanford Univ, 14 Jan 16:
You need more than a good idea to change the world. To determine whether an organization is worth funding, a private foundation has developed a deceptively simple test. There are just four short questions, but they all have to be answered with a 'yes'

Posted on Mon, 01 Aug 2016:

Fighting money laundering remains weak in most countries - Anti-money laundering index, Basel Inst Governance, 27 July 16 [PDF]:
The top 5 nations of highest risk are Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Guinea-Bissau and Mali, while Finland is the lowest risk nation, followed by Lithuania and Estonia, says the 2016 Basel AML index (Country rankings)

Coffers: Why you shouldn't overlook emerging markets, UBS, by M Haefele, 31 July 16 [via LinkedIn]:
Emerging markets have disappointed investors in recent years. Stocks have been held back by a mix of weak commodity prices, sluggish export growth, and political disruptions. But recently, this trend has reversed. Can this last?, asks UBS chief investment officer

Gregory Mankiw: The GDP and its discontents, Science, 22 July 16 [PDF, courtesy Harvard]:
The author of "The Great Invention: The Story of GDP" expresses great admiration for those who have tried to transcend GDP by developing more inclusive measures. So what do mainstream economists make of these efforts? (Disclosure: I am one of them), writes Pres GW Bush's Council Econ Advisers chair

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