 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
In RealTime posts, PIIE senior staff and colleagues discuss the fast-moving economic news, financial developments, and public policy choices confronting the United States and the world.
Strong advocates of our new G-20 process are convinced that it will bring legitimacy to international economic policy discussions, rule-making, and crisis interventions. Certainly, it’s better than the G-7/G-8 pretending to run things—after all, who elected them? But who elected the G-20? The answer is: no one. And, in case you were wondering, there is [...]
The need for a new equilibrium in global current account and trade imbalances has compelled American policymakers to urge Germany to change its model from that of an export-led economy to one based more on domestic consumption. This would be in keeping with the message delivered in July at the Peterson Institute for International Economics [...]
The headline news from the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh is that progress has been made on “IMF reform,” meaning increased voting power for emerging markets relative to rich countries—remember that Western Europeans are greatly overrepresented at the IMF for historical reasons. But further change in a sensible direction is being blocked by the United Kingdom [...]
How has the IMF fared in relation to the crisis? The assessment has to be in relation to the three stages of the crisis: the run-up, clean-up, and follow-up. My assessment would be something like: cock-up in the run-up; thumbs-up for the clean-up, and doubts about the follow-up. Here’s why. Run-up The authorities in the [...]
It looks like the G-20 on Friday will emphasize its new “framework” for curing macroeconomic imbalances, rather than any substantive measures to regulate banks, derivatives, or any other primary cause of the 2008–2009 financial crisis. This is appealing to the G-20 leaders because their call to “rebalance” global growth will involve no immediate action and [...]
The failure of Lehman Brothers over a fateful weekend in mid-September last year, and the chaotic aftermath as A. I. G., Merrill Lynch, and leading money markets funds tottered, “remain a source of widespread outrage and confusion,” writes James B. Stewart in the New Yorker. What an understatement. But like David Wessel of the Wall [...]
President Obama’s speech in New York this week was disappointing. As a diagnosis of the problems that led us into financial crisis, it was his clearest and best effort so far. He didn’t say it was a rare accident for which no one is to blame; rather he placed the blame squarely on the structure, [...]
The decision by the United States to slap a 35 percent tariff on tire imports from China is, of course, significant. It follows a decision last week by the US Department of Commerce to impose countervailing duties on imports of steel pipe from Chinese firms. In the world of the 24/7 news cycle, one trade [...]
As we wade through a long line of international economic meetings—G-20 ministers of finance last week, G-20 heads of government in Pittsburgh coming up, IMF–World Bank governors meeting in Istanbul in early October (and all the associated “deputies” meetings, where the real work goes on)—it seems fair to ask: Where is regulatory reform of our [...]
In less than three weeks, the G-20 leaders will meet in Pittsburgh for the third time in 10 months to discuss the global economic and financial crisis, prospects for recovery, and reforms of the global economic and financial system to limit the virulence of future crises. What do the leaders need to say to turn [...]