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EmergingFrontierMarkets.comemerging and frontier markets:the unofficial field guideSite
Owner / Publisher: Sta.
Romana, Leonardo L.
Based in: Manila,
Philippines;
and Southeast Asia
Posted on Sat, 23 Oct
2021: Afghanistan's economy could shrink by 30% following Taliban takeover, IMF says, CNBC, 19 Oct 21: The Afghan economy could see a contraction of up to 30%, with falling imports, a depreciating Afghani, and accelerating inflation, the IMF said in its latest regional econ report. The IMF's Middle Eeast / Central Asia dept dir said the country was deteriorating due to Covid and droughts, even before the takeover
Bhattacharya and Stern: Our last, best chance on climate, Finance & Development, Sep/Nov '21: If we do not take action now against climate change, the damage could be even greater and more lasting than the effects of the pandemic. The COP26 meeting in Glasgow may yet usher in a new era of sustainable development, write Brookings Inst senior fellow; and Lond Sch Econ Grantham Res Inst chair
Cochrane: The revenge of supply, Project Syndicate, 23 Oct 21 [via Financial Market Minds]: Surging inflation, skyrocketing energy prices, production bottlenecks, shortages, plumbers who won't return your calls – economic orthodoxy has just run smack into a wall of reality called "supply". The current crunch should change ideas, writes Stanford's Hoover Inst senior fellow Rodrik: The metamorphosis of growth policy, Project Syndicate, 13 Oct 21 [via Zawya / UAEmirates]: Development policy has long been divided between two types of approaches. One approach targets poor people directly and seeks to alleviate the poverty of individual households. The other focuses on enhancing economic opportunities and raising overall productivity, writes Harvard economist / Int'l Econ Assn pres Posted on Tue, 12 Oct
2021: 2021
Nobel Prize in Economics -- Awarded "for empirical contributions to
labor economics" to David Card, and "for methodological contributions
to the analysis of causal relationships" to Joshua Angrist and Guido
Imbens, 11 Oct 20: How does immigration affect pay and employment levels? How does a longer education affect someone's future income? These questions are difficult to answer because we have nothing to use as a comparison. These Laureates have shown that it is possible to answer these questions using natural experiments. The key is to use situations in which chance events or policy changes result in groups of people being treated differently IMF board backs Georgieva after review of data-rigging claims, Reuters, 12 Oct 21 [via Devdiscourse/ India]: The IMF exec board on Mon (11 Oct) expressed its full confidence in Manag Dir Georgieva after reviewing allegations that she pressured WB staff to alter data to favor China. But Treas Secy Yellen put her on notice that she would closely monitor the IMF's follow-up and evaluate any new facts or findings The week the world-beating Covid response lost its way, Spinoff (New Zealand), by T Manhire, 11 Oct 21: The PM won plaudits for leading NZ through a pandemic with decisiveness, resolve, and crisp communications. Last week, that was suddenly gone. The challenge will be to recapture the crisp clarity of the first days of the Covid response and avoid the kaleidoscope of mixed messages and scrambled slogans These are the countries historically responsible for the climate emergency, CNBC, 06 Oct 21: The US - by some distance - is responsible for the largest share of CO2 emissions from 1850 through to the present day, according to analysis published Tue (05 Oct) by research group Carbon Brief. The research comes less than a month before the start of a critically important UN climate summit, known as COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland
Thaler and Sunstein: Nudge -- Preface to the Final Edition (via Behavioral Scientist, 02 Aug 21): Using this title is our commitment strategy to prevent us from ever tinkering with this book again. We have loved working on it, and we might even have gotten addicted to it, but we pledge, right here and right now, that there will be no "post‑final" edition, write Nobel Laureate 2017; and Harvard professor
Posted on Fri, 01 Oct
2021: Afghan central bank drained dollar stockpile before Kabul fell - document, Reuters, 29 Sep 21 [via msn]: A confidential, 2-page brief, written early Sep by senior international econ officials for institutions incl the World Bank and IMF, said the country's severe cash shortage began before Kabul fell. The central bank's audit committee chair, who's still in his post, said it was trying to prevent a run on the currency
Joseph Stiglitz: A coup attempt at the IMF, Project Syndicate, 30 Sep 21 [via Business24/ Ghana]: The present IMF chief has been a bold leader in confronting the econ fallout of the pandemic, as well as in positioning the Fund as a global pioneer on climate change. The efforts to remove her now are not only unjust, but could hamstring the Fund's management for years to come, writes Nobel Laureate '01
Jean Pisani-Ferry: The geopolitical conquest of economics, Project Syndicate, 01 Oct 21 [via Azvision/ Azerbaijan]: Although economics and geopolitics have never been completely separate domains, international economic relations were shaped for 70 years by their own rules. But the rise of China and its growing rivalry with the US have brought this era to an end, writes European University Institute economist
Posted on Mon, 20 Sep
2021: China applies to join Trans-Pacific trade pact to boost economic clout, Reuters, 17 Sep 21 [via AGCanada]: China formally applied to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in a letter to New Zealand's trade minister, the commerce ministry said. Japan said it would have to determine if China meets the "extremely high standards" of the free trade agreement
Donors pledging billions in aid to Afghanistan face a challenge: Navigating the Taliban, CNBC, 17 Sep 21: International donors at a UN conference in Geneva incl the US and European states pledged more than $1 bil. in aid. But this presents a fresh dilemma for donors, amid fears of widespread human rights abuses by the Taliban, and amid concerns over new opportunities for corruption and misuse of donation funds
Inquiry puts ex-World Bank officials under scrutiny on China, AP, 18 Sep 21: Fmr WB officials are under pressure after an investigation by the law firm WilmerHale found that Kristalina Georgieva, then the chief exec, and the office of Jim Yong Kim, then the pres, pressured staff members to alter data on global business conditions in order to favor China and some other govts
Posted on Fri, 10 Sep
2021: Analysis: The West owes Qatar a favor over Afghanistan, Reuters, 08 Sep 21 [via msn]: Since the US withdrawal, the world's top diplomats have been beating a path to Qatar. Few moves appear to have paid quite as large a diplomatic dividend as its role when it let the Taliban open the group's main international office in 2013 and provided the venue for peace talks that led to the US agreement to withdraw
Partha Dasgupta: Economics Nature's way, Finance & Development, Sep/Nov '21: The achievements of econ growth conceal a simple truth, which has profound consequences not only for how we think about and practice economics, but also for the way we live our lives. All the prosperity we have enjoyed relies on the Nature that surrounds us, writes author of The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review
Interview: China's yuan likely to become Asia's central currency -- Kenneth Rogoff, Nikkei / Japan, 10 Aug 21 [PDF, courtesy Harvard]: Fifty years after the event in the summer of 1971 dubbed as the "Nixon shock", the US dollar still retains its status as the world's key currency. But will this last for the foreseeable future? Nikkei sat down with Rogoff, Harvard economist, to discuss the future of the monetary system
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