If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
The Blog
Many have dubbed this the 'Asian Century' with Asia's robust economies leading us to believe that all is well in a region that has generated some of the fastest growth and poverty reduction in history.
Over the next four years, no area of foreign policy will impact American prosperity more than financial issues -- and to date, every single major policy move has been profoundly wrong.
Four years ago, Barack Obama was not yet even the Democratic nominee for president. Today he's running for reelection, and his Justice Department is expected to bring criminal charges against some former Credit Suisse traders for fraud they allegedly committed four years ago. We can hope this is the only the beginning of an aggressive new campaign to root out the malfeasance that helped bring down the financial system, but for now it feels like too little, four years too late.
The health of the global economy, and that of markets, depends on the success of a series of medium-term hand-offs between the public and private sectors -- in growth, balance sheets and credit flows.
We are not looking to the World Economic Forum delegates to reinvent the wheel. What we need is for our political leaders to look beyond the narrow and restrictive prism of austerity to put jobs and growth at the center of plans to reboot the global economy.
The U.S. faces fiscal challenges unseen by anyone still alive in politics. And whether President Obama's challenger is Gingrich or Romney, neither will actually represent the people should they win.
It is not just Wall Street that needs to be occupied and reformed, but Main Street, and the process is already underway in finance, retailing, manufacturing, education and politics. Perhaps this is the time for business schools to step forward and take a radical lead.
Chancellor Merkel and her policymakers have been acting on the basis that Greece is an isolated case. Yet every reactive decision and feeble measure by Berlin increases the likelihood of a Greek tragedy becoming a Europe-wide one.
The global crisis has pushed trade reforms off -- or at least to the edge of -- the political radar screen. But shying away from improving the trade system in these tough economic times seems a little like cutting off your nose to spite your face.
A few days after the first sunrise of 2012 kissed the shores of Latin America, it is natural to ask: What does the New Year hold for the region's economies, especially with Europe still under stress?
Too old-fashioned? Or, is there a take-away here? Well, let's take a look.
All signs point to 2012 witnessing an acceleration of the negative economic and fiscal metrics that plagued advanced and major emerging economies in 2011.
The Fed's bail-out was not $1.2 trillion, $7.77 trillion, $16 trillion, or even $24 trillion. It was $29 trillion. That is, of course, the cumulative total. But even the peak outstanding numbers are bigger than previously reported.
Since the onset of the global economic crisis, policymakers and media pundits have resisted using the "D" word, instead preferring terms such as the "Great Recession."
The world's financial system is so tightly linked, so tightly coupled, that semi-random events halfway around the world with zero real economic impact on anything American can still crash our economy.
A year ago I published "10 Big Themes for 2011" -- related to how the digital revolution changes business and society. It's helpful to review what actually occurred. Below are my projections and some 20-20 hindsight editorializing.
