Trade & Globalization

In his latest installment of global development wonkery for Business Week, our New America Fellow Charles Kenny (whom we share with the Center for Global Development) eloquently argues that the World Bank and IMF’s latest calls to all but rid the world of “extreme poverty” by 2030 are – to put it nicely – not nearly ambitious enough. This line is particularly clutch: “It seems wrong that most of the planet would subsist for a day on what many happily throw away on a [Starbucks Venti Caramel Frappuccino] and . . . that level of expenditure still doesn’t guarantee people a quality of life we should all deserve.” While I’d even argue that income itself as a measure of poverty and inequality falls flat in various and collective efforts to enable prosperity for all around the world – access to savings and asset building opportunities, in addition to income, is likely a much more powerful means of eradicating poverty over the long haul – I salute the audacity and optimism he conveys in this compelling piece and encourage others to check it out.

The recent deliberations in Washington about the fiscal cliff have triggered a national debate in the United States about the nature, extent and future sustainability of key elements of the U.S. social safety net: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, support for education, the unemployed and the poor.

by Jay Pelosky

This article originally appeared in The Huffington Post. View the original piece here.

New York can be as compelling in a hurricane as it is on a starry Saturday night. Some of the thrill of living in the city arises from its combination of majesty and vulnerability. Coming to terms with apocalyptic scenes is easier here than in other cities because the scenes have already been imagined, scripted and filmed by Hollywood’s dystopian directors. We step outside this week as if onto a familiar movie set.

Much is made of the stunning growth of North American petroleum supplies, but a new report says that for the next two decades, Iraq will account for 45% of global supply growth, and become a new Saudi Arabia.

At some point in the next 200 million years, according to Yale University scientists, the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates will collide at the North Pole. When they are eventually joined by Africa, the singular super-continent will re-emerge, reminiscent of the Pangea that existed hundreds of millions of years ago.

by Jay Pelosky

This piece originally appeared in the Huffington Post.

Contents

I.  Overview
II.  The Story Begins with Oil & Gas
III.  Job Creation and Investment
IV.  The Catalyst for a Manufacturing Revival
V.  The Rise of New Industries
VI.  Shoring up America’s Fiscal Position
VII.  Infrastructure Investment is the Missing Piece of the Story
VIII.  Serious Obstacles Remain

The share of wages and salaries in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has declined in most rich nations over the past 20 to 30 years. Over the same period, income inequality has grown in most of these nations, and rapidly in some of the largest of them, resulting in slow wage growth for most consumers.