When the WTO starts its work for 2009 this week, three items must be at the top of the agenda: debating the selection and mandate of the agency’s Director-General (Pascal Lamy’s current four-year term will expire this August); setting a date for a full Ministerial Conference this year in Geneva; and forging a forward-looking agenda for that meeting.
Though our work and research on matters of global economic governance continues, our posting here does not. For up-to-date information on the latest GEG news and research, please check the main GEG website and Facebook page.
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January 4, 2009 / financial crisis, imf, trade, world bank, wto
Tags: Deere, developing countries, Director General, Doha Round, financial crisis, Lamy, leadership, sustainable development, trade, wto
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December 7, 2008 / aid, financial crisis
Just think about it. The $700 billion rescue package that the US Congress approved for the financial crisis is equal to seven times current yearly aid levels, or the equivalent of global aid flows between now and 2015, the year that marks the target for the Millennium Development Goals. It will be spent within a [...]
Tags: aid, financial crisis, paolo de renzio
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November 22, 2008 / financial crisis
Why have Italy and Ireland announced cuts to their foreign aid budget? Which other countries might reverse their UN commitment to spend 0.7% of Gross National Income on Official Development Assistance by 2015 because of public pressure?
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Bailing out the poor…
Comments OffNovember 20, 2008 / financial crisisAs developing economies were recovering from the news of 100 million new poor from high food and fuel prices, the world financial crisis hit. For the poorest economies, the impact of the most recent crisis is significant, but mostly indirect. It runs through a decline in world commodity prices, slower demand for exports, lower investments, [...]
Tags: developing countries, financial crisis, george gray molina
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Reforming the IMF and World Bank: Ngaire Woods
Comments OffNovember 19, 2008 / financial crisis, imf, world bankNgaire Woods addresses the urgent but difficult task of reforming the world’s international financial institutions in a report for the Progressive Governance Conference hosted by Gordon Browne in April 2008.
In the report, she writes that global cooperation among governments is urgently needed to manage the current financial crisis. In principle, the IMF and World Bank are ideally placed to play a key role. But in practice, neither institution is adequately equipped to ensure cooperation to deal with the current crisis. Put simply, neither institution has a governance structure which today commands the confidence of emerging economic powers whose cooperation is vital if global collective action is to resolve the financial crisis.
Tags: financial crisis, imf, ngaire woods, publications, world bank
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October 30, 2008 / financial crisis
“We are living in economic chaos. Banks, homes, jobs, and businesses are at risk.
Yet curiously, the one thing that seems stable is the dollar.
It is a symbol – and a lever – of American power and leadership. It is the standard unit of account for much of the world’s economic activity. And in times of crisis, it has often seemed a safe haven.
But in the longer term, some experts believe this crisis could mark a turning point in the dollar’s fortunes, hastening a fall from power which has seen its value decline over several years before its recent rally.”
