News and Analysis: 17-30 Sep 2016 | EmergingFrontierMarkets.com

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Posted on Fri, 30 Sep 2016:

Why Hanjin, the world's 7th largest container shipping line , went under, OECD Intl Transport Forum (blog), by O Merk, 09 Sep 16:
Not just any casualty, but the largest shipping bankruptcy in history, Hanjin was a large container line with a fleet of 90 ships. Was this an accident, an isolated case of bad luck, or is something more structural going on?, asks Forum ports/shipping expert

Keeping the wheels of trade in motion, IMF News, 26 Sep 16:
The slowdown in trade growth since 2012 is largely because of weak econ activity, esp. investment, but also fewer trade deals and a recent uptick in protectionism, acc. to a newly-released analytic chapter of the Oct 2016 World Economic Outlook

GDP "no guarantee" of quality of life, says new report, Social Progress Imperative, 28 June 16 [courtesy Deloitte]:
The 2016 Social Progress Index finds that while social progress does tend to rise as GDP increases, economic wealth on its own does not explain social progress outcomes. It ranks Finland the world's most socially progressive country, followed by Canada, Denmark, Australia, and Switzerland

Posted on Wed, 28 Sep 2016:

World Bank chief reappointed amid criticism, Deutsche Welle, 28 Sep 16:
The World Bank's board has unanimously agreed to reappoint its president to a second five-year term. US physician Jim Yong Kim was the only candidate, leading to criticism over the lack of competition and transparency

Nancy Birdsall: Four comments and a suggestion for the World Bank board, Ctr Global Devt (blog), 21 Sep 16:
The current pres is the sole candidate in what appears to have been a kind of insider coup by the US (called a "charade" in a WB Staff Association letter) of the procedures agreed by WB members in 2011. As a US citizen, I'm chagrined, writes Ctr founding pres

Combating persistent disinflation - A challenge for many central banks, IMF News, 27 Sep 16:
While there has been a broad-based decline in inflation across nations over the past few years, expectations of the path of future prices (or inflation expectations) have not declined substantially so far, acc. to a just-released chapter of the Oct 2016 World Economic Outlook

Posted on Moni, 26 Sep 2016:

Caroline Freund: Estate tax a key tool for fighting US inequality, Peterson Inst (blog), 22 Sep 16:
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the US estate tax, which affects only the ultra-wealthy. Given the rising focus on income inequality, the tax should be on solid ground. Not so. Donald Trump has vowed to eliminate the estate tax, while Hillary Clinton wants to revive it, writes Inst senior fellow

Gregory Mankiw: Why taxing fairly means not taxing inheritances, NYT, 11 Sep 16 [PDF, courtesy Harvard]:
Today, the federal govt imposes a tax of 40% on estates over $5.45 mil. Now, Hillary Clinton wants to increase the tax by reducing the threshold and raising the rate. Trump wants to eliminate it, writes Pres G W Bush's Council Econ Advisers chair

China slowdown is global economy's biggest threat, Rogoff says, BBC News, by K Ahmed, 26 Sep 16:
Kenneth Rogoff, fmr IMF chief economist, said that a calamitous "hard landing" for one of the main engines of global growth could not be ruled out. "If you want to look at a part of the world that has a debt problem, look at China's credit-fueled growth. These things don't go on forever"

Posted on Fri, 23 Sep 2016:

Eatwell and Taylor: Monetarist tools have failed to lift economies (Letter to the editor), FT, 20 Sep 16 [PDF, courtesy Stanford U]:
Sir, you report that the Bank of England governor told MPs that the BoE is prepared to cut interest rates further from their historic low, write Cambridge U Queens' College pres and Stanford economist

Branko Milanovic: Income inequality is cyclical, Nature, 21 Sep 16:
For the past 30 years or so, income inequality has been on the rise across the globe: in the US, China, Russia - even in Sweden and Finland, long thought to be paragons of equality. What's driving this increase?, asks author of Global Inequality: A new approach for the Age of Globalization (2016)

An Open Letter regarding climate change, from 375 Concerned Members of the US National Academy of Sciences, 20 Sep 16:
375 members of the NAS, incl 30 Nobel laureates, published an open letter to draw attention to the serious risks of climate change. The letter warns that the consequences of opting out of the Paris agreement would be severe and long-lasting for our planet's climate

Posted on Wed, 21 Sep 2016:

Weak trade and financial distortions damage global growth prospects, warns OECD, 21 Sep 16:
The OECD's latest Interim Economic Outlook warns that a low-growth trap has taken root. Over the past few years, the rate of global trade growth has halved relative to the pre-crisis period, and it declined further in recent quarters, with the weakness concentrated in Asia

Forced displacement - A developing world crisis, World Bank, 15 Sep 16:
Forced displacement is a crisis centered in developing nations, which host 89% of refugees and 99% of internally displaced persons, says a new report. At its root are the same 10 conflicts which have accounted for the majority of the forcibly displaced every year since 1991, and hosted by about 15 nations – also mostly in the developing world

Robert Shiller: An intellectual revolution is coming, Project Syndicate, 21 Sep 16 [via WEForum (blog)]:
For the past several centuries, the world has experienced a sequence of intellectual revolutions against oppression of one sort or another. I think the next such revolution will challenge the economic implications of the nation-state, writes 2013 Nobel Laureate

Posted on Mon, 19 Sep 2016:

Claudio Borio: Dissonant markets?, Bank for International Settlements, 18 Sep 16:
There has been a distinctly mixed feel to the recent rally - more stick than carrot, more push than pull, more frustration than joy. This explains the nagging question of whether market prices fully reflect the risks ahead. Only time will tell, says monetary/econ dept head

Dervis and Qureshi: Probing the productivity paradox, Project Syndicate, 14 Sep 16 [courtesy Brookings]:
Over the last decade or so, productivity growth has slowed considerably in most major developed economies, even as impressive advances have been made in areas like computing, mobile telephony, and robotics. What is going on?, ask Inst vice pres; and senior fellow

Ha-Joon Chang: Making things matters - This is what Britain forgot, Guardian, 18 May 16:
"Making things" no longer matters, some argue. The proponents wheel out Switzerland, which has more than twice the per capita income of the UK despite – or rather because of – its reliance on finance and tourism, writes Cambridge U economist

Posted on Sat, 17 Sep 2016:

Lynn Stout: Does Wall Street do "God's work"? Or even anything useful?, Univ Chicago (blog), 31 Aug 16:
Bank execs frequently proclaim that Wall St is vital to the nation's economy and performs socially valuable services like raising capital. There's just one problem: the Wall St mantra isn't true, writes Cornell U law prof

Steven Kaplan: (God knows) Wall St isn't perfect, but it has helped make the world a lot better off, U Chicago (blog), 02 Sep 16:
These criticisms have been with us for a long, long time. Finance and financiers have been looked at skeptically (and scapegoated) for much of recorded history. But that does not mean these are correct, writes U Chicago economist

Making politics work for development is all the rage, BBC (blog), by J Deane, 04 Aug 16:
We’re currently seeing a profusion of reports arguing that devt organizations find it difficult to understand and respond to political realities. Most conclude that devt fails to deliver impact because politics gets in the way, writes Policy & Learning dir

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