VOX  CEPR Policy Portal

The NYU Stern group – authors of the influential book Restoring Financial Stability: How to Repair a Failed System – have completed a new ebook that assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the US financial reform legislation. This column introduces the new ebook.

Is the global economy turning around? Analysing the situation across the globe, this column concludes that the only reasonably convincing evidence of ‘green shoots’ comes from China – but even that recovery is unlikely to be sustainable due to China's dependency on exports. A global flu pandemic, if it were to occur, would act as a negative supply and demand shock.

The IMF appointed a committee, chaired by Trevor Manuel, to look into IMF decision making. This column reviews the report, arguing that it misses critical question on Executive Board reform. Without an independent board, the Fund’s skewed voting power tends to produce uneven treatment of members. Decision-making power must ultimately rest with shareholders but they should be advised by an independent board that acts as the voice of the institution and its membership as a whole.

This column updates the original Vox columns by Barry Eichengreen and Kevin O’Rourke comparing today’s global crisis to the Great Depression. The three previous columns have shattered all Vox readership records with over 450,000 views. This latest edition covers up to February 2010 showing that, while there is cause for optimism, there is no room for complacency.

G20 leaders made a number of commitments on trade in their London Communiqué. This column argues that the anti-protection pledge is more credible than the one agreed in the Washington Declaration. The commitment on the Doha Round, by contrast, was pitiful.

Did the Summit succeed? This column argues that the G20 Summit is not the turning point, but it provides the strongest reason yet to be less pessimistic. The commitments may leave plenty of room for the devil to make mischief with, but it is hard to think what more the G20 could have done. Gordon Brown has pulled some large rabbits from his hat.

The crisis, started by rich nations, is now harming developing nations. In this column, Alan Winters – one of the world’s leading trade and development economists and now chief economist of the UK’s Department for International Development – argues that Summit commitments show that development and developing countries are at the heart of G20 leaders’ vision for the twenty-first century.

The world needs a watchdog institution for global economic stability. Most agree that the IMF is the only serious candidate, but IMF management and staff need more independence. This column argues that this could be achieved by having separate Executive Board voting procedures for lending and analytic decisions, and some independent members on the Board.

This column proposes the launch of a WTO Crisis Round at the G20 summit. Unlike the Doha round’s liberalising agenda, such a crisis round would simply aim to “hold the line on protectionism” and prevent a retreat from current levels of trade openness. This column that says that such action is necessary for the global trading system to survive these “potentially perilous times.”