Timothy A. Wise
How much have U.S. ethanol policies pushed up corn prices? And how much have these higher prices cost developing countries dependent on imports for their staple foods? And if one of those countries is the chair of the G20, will it use its considerable influence over the agenda to demand policy changes?
The answers to the first two questions are clear from my new study, “The Cost to Mexico of U.S. Corn Ethanol Expansion” U.S. ethanol expansion has pushed prices up 20% or more in recent years, and that cost Mexico, which imports one-third of its corn, an extra $1.5-$3.2 billion from 2006-11.
The answer to the last question is less clear. Mexico is indeed the chair of the G20, whose vice ministers of agriculture meet tomorrow in Mexico City to set the G20’s food-security agenda in advance of the June 18-19 G20 summit. The Mexican government issued a report that suggests little ambition on food security, but hopefully our biofuels report will bring home why Mexico should lead and not follow on biofuels in the G20.
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Gerald Epstein
Jamie Dimon’s bravado railing against financial reform has morphed into contrition and a heavy diet of humble pie. After reportedly referring to Paul Volcker’s support of the “Volcker Rule” ban on risky proprietary trading and Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’ President Richard W. Fisher’s support for downsizing the nation’s biggest banks as “infantile” and “nonfactual”, Dimon, President of JP Morgan-Chase is now admitting “egregious mistakes” as his bank reports a minimum of $2 billion in losses on risky trades that just a few weeks ago he defended against press reports which he called a “tempest in a teapot.”
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Jayati Ghosh
India needs to draw up a coherent industrial strategy by learning from developing countries that have successfully employed industrial policies.
A PANEL discussion in Doha, Qatar, as part of the 13th United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XIII) brought together some economists and policymakers to provide new perspectives on industrial policies in the South. It became evident that industrial policies have been significant, if unsung, forces behind the much-trumpeted “emergence” of some developing economies as major players on the world stage.
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Jeff Madrick
Two new books examine how putting capitalism before community has distorted the economy and put democracy at risk.
I participated in a panel discussion last week to help launch The Occupy Handbook, in which I and about 60 others made contributions. It was mostly composed of economists and mainstream journalists, and the focus was income inequality. One wouldn’t expect anything much different from a discussion of Occupy Wall Street, which after all made “the 1 percent” a household tag line for what is unfair about the American economy. Read the rest of this entry »
What We’re Reading
Joseph E. Stiglitz, After Austerity
Andrew DeWit, Japan’s remarkable renewable energy drive – after Fukushima
Peter Wahl, Inching towards a financial transaction tax
Suranjana Bhaduri, Free Trade and Inclusive Development: Lessons from the Indian Experience
Antonio Vives, What are the social responsibilities of financial institutions?
José Gabriel Palma, Homogeneous middles vs. heterogeneous tails, and the end of the ‘Inverted-U’: the share of the rich is what it’s all about
Skip Laitner, Desert Year: Doing a 180 on Energy
What We’re Writing:
Timothy A. Wise with Sophia Murphy, Interview in “The Road to Rio” from UNCSD
Jeff Madrick, The Path to a Stronger Democracy Lies in Strengthening Community
Marin Khor, New UN Institutions for Sustainable Development? and Generics Under Threat: Can India still supply cheap medicines for the world?
Triple Crisis blogger Mark Blyth was recently interviewed by Simon Tilford from the Centre for European Reform. They discuss European crisis management, unexpected and expected problems with the Euro, the possibilities of economic reform in the periphery countries, and whether Germany can change its mind.
Originally posted by The Watson Institute.
Sunita Narain
A harried parent called a few weeks ago. She wanted to know if the pollution levels in Delhi were bad and if so how bad. The answer was simple and obvious. But why do you need to know? Her daughter’s prestigious school (which I will leave unnamed) had sent a circular to parents, saying they are planning to shift to air-conditioned buses because they were worried about air pollution. She wanted to know if this was the right decision.
My answer changed. The fact is that pollution levels are high and we do need to find ways to bring them under control. But the solution is not to think that the rich can find ways to avoid breathing the air, and so keep pollution at bay. I asked her if the school was also planning to build an air-conditioned funnel for walkways and an air-conditioned gymnasium so that children would not be exposed to this foul air. Read the rest of this entry »
Matías Vernengo
The new book (and the accompanying blog) by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson Why Nations Fails is a popular version of their academic papers (several with Simon Johnson, the ex IMF chief economist) on the topic [read a brief summary here]. The main idea is that institutions and not geography or culture are the key to economic development. That is for the most part true.
They use South and North Korea (and Nogales, México and Arizona) as an example of countries that share the same culture and geography, but have very different institutions, and, as a result, a huge disparity in income per capita. Jared Diamond is correct to point out that, in part, technology is geographically determined. No plants and animals to domesticate, and provide for a large surplus (Diamond uses the old classical notion of surplus), and higher population density (with the diseases and immunities associated to those Germs) and no advantages associated to a more developed division of labor (Diamond is also Smithian in that sense), with the consequent development of technology (Guns and Steel). But the problem is that this won’t help you understand why England and not China industrialized (the opposite extremes of the Eurasian continent). Read the rest of this entry »
Martin Khor
A fresh mandate has been given to the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to continue the scope of its present activities as well as to take on some new issues in the next four years.
This was the main result of UNCTAD’s ministerial conference (known as UNCTAD XIII) that ended in Doha, Qatar, on Thursday.
It came after a huge battle between developing and developed countries that went on for several months, first in Geneva (where the UN organisation is located) and then in Doha.
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