WASHINGTON, DC: Over the past 75 years, global prosperity, poverty reduction, and economic growth rates have reached unprecedented levels, largely driven by the open multilateral trading system. By lowering tariffs and reducing transportation and...
WASHINGTON, DC: In an age of rapid technological disruption and economic transformation, policymaking has become more complex than ever. As incomes have risen, so has demand for more and better goods. New technologies have helped to meet this...
WASHINGTON, DC: The October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas has rightly generated enormous sympathy for the people of Israel, especially given Jews’ history of persecution, culminating in the Holocaust. But the plight of civilians in Gaza since...
WASHINGTON, DC: When bilateral talks fail to resolve disputes between sovereign countries, aggrieved parties may turn to an international judicial body, such as the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Alternatively, treaties or agreements...
WASHINGTON, DC: In its latest World Economic Outlook, the International Monetary Fund reported that a rising share of countries – 56 per cent of low-income countries and 25 per cent of emerging markets – are “in or at high levels...
WASHINGTON, DC: It is said that if you put a frog in boiling water, it immediately jumps out; but if you put it in cold water and gradually turn up the heat, it does not react – and is eventually boiled to death. Something similar can happen...
WASHINGTON, DC: The exponential growth of international capital flows, predominantly in the form of debt, has been one of the great development successes of the past 50 years. But while foreign lending has played a pivotal role for developing...
WASHINGTON, DC: Recent headlines seem to augur a global debt crisis. The United States is teetering on the precipice of a self-inflicted default. Egypt, Ghana, Pakistan, and many other countries are in grave financial difficulties. Italy and Japan...
WASHINGTON, DC :When Sri Lanka’s economic crisis burst into international headlines a year ago, it had already been worsening for many months. Critical fuel shortages prevented people from going to work, and consumer goods could not be...
WASHINGTON, DC: The world is embroiled in a mega-crisis comprising the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s war in Ukraine, high inflation, recession fears, and rising debt distress across emerging markets and developing countries. The last thing we...
WASHINGTON, DC: The contradiction between US President Joe Biden’s major domestic and foreign-policy objectives and his administration’s trade policies has grown increasingly sharp. As Biden nears the midpoint of his electoral...
WASHINGTON, DC: Semiconductors, one of the most important innovations of the last century, are now crucial inputs in mobile phones, personal computers, educational technologies, vehicles, heavy machinery, medical instruments, military equipment,...
WASHINGTON, DC: Inflation has become a hot-button political issue worldwide. In the United States, the consumer price index increased at an annual rate of 8.6 per cent in May, and EU inflation is not far behind. The root cause of the problem is...
WASHINGTON, DC: To help Ukraine while avoiding a nuclear confrontation between NATO and Russia, the United States and its allies have attacked the Russian economy with trade and financial sanctions on a previously unimaginable scale. But is it the...
By Anne O. Krueger WASHINGTON, DC : Although the pandemic has caused upheavals and hardship around the world, it has fallen particularly hard on low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Vaccine availability has been far more limited in...
WASHINGTON, DC: Turkey’s economy is in crisis. Inflation is high and rising, economic growth is stalling, foreign-exchange reserves have plummeted, many goods are in short supply or simply unavailable, and low- and middle-income households...
WASHINGTON, DC – No one would want to repeat the past 18 months. COVID-19, climate change, and global political developments have left tens of millions of people worse off physically and financially. The news has been filled with accounts of...
WASHINGTON, DC – Bitcoin and other privately issued cryptocurrencies have generated a frenzy of excitement, with most of the analysis focused on their appeal and apparent drawbacks. But relatively less attention has been paid to an even more...
