Finance & Development articles from December 2005

Finance & Development archives from December 2005

What's next for Latin America?(FROM THE EDITOR)(economy)
December 1, 2005... AFTER the "lost decade" of the 1980s and the financial crises of the mid- and late-1990s and early years of this decade, Latin America is enjoying some much-needed breathing space. Growth has been strong during 2004-05, the destructive...

Survival of the fittest.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2005... In "Risky Business" (September 2005), Raghuram Rajan argues that skewed incentives for investment managers may be adding to global financial risks. As savings have been disintermediated and increasingly channeled toward investment managers and...

Who should pay for university?(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2005... Nicholas Barr ("Financing Higher Education," June 2005) reminded us that graduates earn a large private return to their degrees. It is, therefore, right that these graduates contribute more to the costs of their higher education. Why should low...

Not just for profit.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2005... F&D has once again presented a serious, critical, and in-depth look at elements of the global economic system, this time in its articles on making aid work (September 2005). That said, a few matters may not have been accorded enough...

Bird flu action plan.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Governments and United Nations agencies have developed a six-point global action plan to preempt a deadly human pandemic of bird flu, which a World Bank analysis estimates could cost the global economy $800 billion if it occurred. The global...

Digital divide harms growth.(IN Africa)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Developing countries in Africa and other regions face a competitive disadvantage because their businesses have difficulty accessing the Internet, according to a report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. The Information...

Africa fighting desertification.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... African governments and donors have launched an ambitious plan to fight desertification, which causes chronic food shortages and threatens to drive millions from their homes in coming decades. The Terrafrica partnership aims to attract at least...

Work longer.(early retirement should be discouraged)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Employment ministers in industrial countries have agreed that more must be done to encourage older people to remain in the workforce. If nothing changes, the number of retirees will increase significantly over the coming decades while the...

Events in 2006.(Calendar)
December 1, 2005... January 25-26, Davos, Switzerland World Economic Forum, "Mastering Our Future" February 10-11, Moscow, Russia G8 Finance Ministers meeting February 16-18, Vilamoura, Portugal Global Conference on Social Responsibility March 27-29,...

Economics with a social face: Conny Lotze interviews development economist Nora Lustig, long-time advocate of employing social policies in the batle against poverty.(PEOPLE IN ECONOMICS)(Interview)
December 1, 2005... ECONOMICS, long known as the dismal science, usually examines issues with clinical detachment. But Nora Lustig has spent her career trying to give it a conscience. She has been in the vanguard of development economists who not only insisted on...

Latin America's resurgence: region has fresh chance to entrench growth and break cycle of crises.(Cover Story)
December 1, 2005... LATIN AMERICA often appears to lurch from the cusp of success to the depths of crisis, so to talk about resurgence invites skepticism. Nevertheless, much of the region has witnessed a swift and robust recovery from the successive financial...

A fork in the road: Latin America faces a choice between populism and deeper reform.(POINT OF VIEW)
December 1, 2005... ON THE surface, the IMF's recent growth numbers for Latin America are quite encouraging: almost 4.8 percent average growth for 2004-05, and a forecast of 3.8 percent for 2006. This is an impressive turnaround when measured against the 1.4...

Putting Latin America back on the map: consolidation of democratic institutions is a vital part of Latin America's recovery.(POINT OF VIEW)
December 1, 2005... THE U.S. National Intelligence Council, in its "Mapping the Global Future"--a widely cited study on global trends shaping the world of 2020--concludes that the 21st century will be the Asian Century, with the rise of India and China as world...

Stuck in a rut: avenues for combating persistent poverty and inequality in Latin America.
December 1, 2005... AFTER going through bouts of crisis or economic slowdown in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Latin America now enjoys brighter economic prospects and an ongoing recovery. But poverty and income inequality remain stubbornly high and deep-rooted....

Latin America's indigenous peoples: despite greater political power, indigenous peoples still lag behind.
December 1, 2005... IN DECEMBER 1994, the United Nations proclaimed 1995-2004 the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples. In Latin America--where indigenous peoples comprise some 10 percent of the population--the ensuing decade coincided with an...

Taming the monster: how Latin America's central banks survived hyperinflation to become guardians of price stability.
December 1, 2005... IN 1990, average inflation in Latin America reached an unprecedented 500 percent. Argentina, Brazil, and Peru--three of the region's largest economies--posted four-digit rates of inflation, and no country managed to achieve inflation below 10...

Building on CAFTA: how the free trade pact can help foster Central America's economic integration.(Free Trade Agreement, 2004, United States-Central America-Dominican Republic)
December 1, 2005... REGIONAL integration is gaining momentum across the globe. In addition to the well-known integration efforts in Europe, policymakers in Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East are considering policies to foster...

The inequality TRAP: why equity must be central to development policy.(economic conditions of developing countries)
December 1, 2005... A GIRL born to a lower-caste family of nine in the slums of Dhaka has vastly different opportunities from a boy born to well-educated and affluent parents in the well-heeled neighborhoods. An AIDS orphan in rural Zimbabwe is almost certain to...

A war chest for fighting HIV/AIDS: with billions of dollars mobilized, the challenge is how to spend the money wisely.
December 1, 2005... AFTER CLOSE to two decades of neglect, battling the HIV/AIDS epidemic has become one of the highest priorities on the global agenda. UNAIDS estimates that some 40 million people are living with HIV--25 million of them in sub-Saharan Africa and...

Remittances: a lifeline for development.(BACK TO BASICS)(migration)
December 1, 2005... WHEN MIGRANTS send home part of their earnings in the form of either cash or goods to support their families, these transfers are known as workers' or migrant remittances. They have been growing rapidly in the past few years and now represent...

Sending money home: trends in migrant remittances.(PICTURE THIS)
December 1, 2005... OVER the past fifteen years, international migrant remittances have become increasingly prominent--exceeding $232 billion in 2005, with $167 billion flowing to developing countries. This amount, however, reflects only transfers recorded in the...

Islamic finance gears up: while gaining ground, the industry faces unique regulatory challenges.
December 1, 2005... ISLAMIC finance is developing at a remarkable pace. Since its inception three decades ago, the number of Islamic financial institutions worldwide has risen from one in 1975 to over 300 today in more than 75 countries. They are concentrated in...

A blueprint for a benevolent hegemon.(The United States and the World Economy Foreign Economic Policy for the Next Decade Institute for International Economics)(Book Review)
December 1, 2005... C. Fred Bergsten and others The United States and the World Economy Foreign Economic Policy for the Next Decade Institute for International Economics, Washington, D.C., 2005, 488 pp., $26.95 (cloth). IN these days of flourishing...

Despots or democrats?(The Democracy Advantage How Democracies Promote Prosperity and Peace )(Book Review)
December 1, 2005... Morton H. Halperin, Joseph T. Siegle, and Michael M. Weinstein The Democracy Advantage How Democracies Promote Prosperity and Peace Taylor & Francis, Inc., 2004, 290 pp., $28.50 (cloth). "DISCUSS the implications of the following three...

Slowing the rush for the door.(Curbing the Boom-Bust Cycle: Stabilizing Capital Flows to Emerging Markets)(Book Review)
December 1, 2005... John Williamson Curbing the Boom-Bust Cycle Stabilizing Capital Flows to Emerging Markets Institute for International Economics, Washington, D.C., 2005, 126 pp., $22.95 (paperback). JOHN Williamson's book provides a first-rate analysis...

Aid and growth: the policy challenge: we need more than aid to break the cycle of poverty.(STRAIGHT TALK)(economic conditions for developing countries)
December 1, 2005... NOW that developed countries and international financial institutions have committed themselves to writing off the debt of highly indebted poor countries, the challenge will be to convert these resources into actual growth and faster progress...

Peru.(COUNTRY FOCUS)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... In recent years, Peru has enjoyed robust growth thanks to sound macroeconomic policies, significant progress with structural reforms, and a favorable external environment. Continued strong growth will help further reduce Peru's still high...