International Finance News

No easy answers on effect of freer capital
August 21, 2025 - Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The macroeconomic effect of removing restrictions on capital flows into and out of developing countries remains uncertain and policymakers should be wary of extreme arguments for or against such moves, an International Monetary Fund study said on Monday.  Go...

Will a Phoenix Rise From the Ashes of Doha’s Collapse?
July 27, 2025 - Sophia Murphy and Carin Smaller, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
[T]he real reasons for the negotiations’ demise lie in fundamental mistakes made more than five years ago, when WTO members agreed to the Doha Agenda in November 2001.  Go...

The Poverty of Energy Security
July 14, 2025 - Neil Watkins and Steve Kretzmann, tompaine.com
When the G-8 met in Gleneagles last year, global poverty and climate change headlined the agenda. This weekend in St. Petersburg, energy security tops the list, and last year's priorities seem forgotten. The G-8 appears to define energy security primarily as promoting the expansion of oil production worldwide, which will only further increase oil dependence, exacerbate climate change and drive countries deeper into debt.  Go...

Two Myths of Globalization
July 26, 2025 - A. Edward Gottesman, WORLD POLICY JOURNAL
Economic commentary on the subject of globalization has often focused on two widely accepted, but mainly misunderstood, mantras. The first is that China is the "next economic superpower" and will be the largest economy in the world in 10, 20, or 30 years (depending on the source). The second is that the current account deficit the United States has run for a number of years (about a third of which has recently been in trade with China) is "unsustainable" and will result in some global economic cataclysm.  Go...

Talks suspended. ‘Today there are only losers.’
July 24, 2025 - World Trade Organization
The Doha Development Agenda negotiations are to be suspended because gaps between key players remain too wide. Heads of delegations, speaking in an informal meeting of the Trade Negotiations Committee on 24 July 2006, agreed with WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy that this will be a setback for all members.  Go...

World Puts the Brakes on the Rush to Globalization
July 5, 2025 - Steven Pearlstein, Washington Post
This is the week each year when Americans revel in their nationalism, a summer brew of playful patriotism, boastful exceptionalism and a somewhat smug insularity.

But the events of the past few weeks suggest that the nationalist impulse may be more than seasonal this time, and certainly not limited to the United States. Certainly in the economic sense, the rush toward globalization has slowed, and "economic patriotism" is on the rise. The nation-state and the national economy, which only a few years ago were being written off in certain elite circles, are proving to be a lot more enduring than people thought.  Go...

Funder Convening on Globalization
June 1, 2025 - FNTG
New Perspectives, Key Strategies, Success Stories and Funder Opportunities

San Francisco Bay Area Evening of June 6 – June 8, 2025

Join a community of funders from diverse fields and perspectives to analyze global trends and the evolving discourse around globalization, to share and celebrate successful civil society strategies, and to discuss how funders can use our resources most effectively to support positive change in these most fundamental driving forces, both at home and abroad.

* Mapping the global economy, and exploring terrains of intervention

* The changing discourse on globalization: Where is it now and where is it going?

* Revisiting trade, poverty and development… with new data

* Globalization of human rights: Breakthroughs and continuing challenges

* Bringing it home: Local organizing in a global context

* International cooperation vs. global domination, for security in an insecure world

* Funder Opportunities: What does it all mean; how do we continue moving forward?

For program details and registration please click here:  Go...

Critics Plan Offensive as IMF-World Bank Crisis Deepens
April 27, 2025 - Walden Bello, Focus on the Global South
Washington, DC, April 24. The spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund took place this weekend with police barricades ringing the two institutions at the heart of Washington, DC. There were almost no protesters in sight.  Go...

Could Globalization Fail?
April 13, 2025 - Thomas Palley, YaleGlobal
Policies that spawn economic inequality rather than free trade could bring about an economic crisis  Go...

Why Globalization Has Stalled
April 27, 2025 - Sebastian Mallaby, The Washington Post
A few years ago, anti-globalization rioters were clogging the streets, disrupting the meetings of the world's multilateral organizations. Today, something more serious is afoot.  Go...

Globalization's second death?
April 10, 2025 - NIALL FERGUSON, Los Angeles Times
ARE WE WITNESSING the beginning of the end of globalization? And should we be cheering or chafing at the prospect of its demise?  Go...

Export-led Growth: The Elephant in the Room
January 15, 2025
Psychologists refer to the “elephant in the room” phenomenon as a condition where people talk about everything except the most important issue.  Go...

Another Election, Another Wake-Up Call for Washington
February 10, 2025 - Mark Weisbrot, Knight-Ridder/Tribune Information Services
Costa Rica is a small Central American country of four million people that - unlike its neighbors El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua during their bloody civil wars - has never attracted much attention in the United States, except as a destination for tourists and retirees. But last Sunday's election there should serve as another wake-up call for Washington  Go...

Breaking Ranks at the World Bank
February 17, 2025 - Marcela Sanchez, Washington Post
Special to washingtonpost.com The World Bank announced this week that Latin America needs to cut poverty to boost growth -- a conclusion that may be "descubriendo el agua tibia," or, stating the obvious. But this is a big deal for the international lending institution.  Go...

Deficit forces IMF to rethink role
February 7, 2025 - William McQuillen, BLOOMBERG NEWS
Early repayments from fund's biggest borrowers leave shortfall. The International Monetary Fund's loss of two of its biggest borrowers last month has left the lender with a widening budget shortfall and renewed questions about its role in the global economy.  Go...

The Greening of Goldman Sachs
January 3, 2025 - Traci Hukill, AlterNet
One of the world's leading investment banks concedes there are real financial costs to ignoring the environment -- and they don't intend to get stuck paying them.  Go...

Debt deal hailed but details beckon
September 26, 2024 - Andrew Walker, BBC News
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have agreed to cancel up to $55bn (£31bn) in debts owed to them by some of the world's poorest countries. The agreement here in Washington, at the annual meetings of the two organisations, was what was needed to ensure the debt cancellation proposals from the G8 summit at Gleneagles, in Scotland, will be implemented.  Go...

The IMF Has Lost its Influence
September 23, 2024 - Mark Weisbrot, International Herald Tribune
Sometimes historic changes take place quietly, while no one is looking. Great institutions lose power with a whimper rather than a bang. Such is the case of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)...  Go...

UN Fears an Unhappy Birthday as Rows Threaten Summit
September 13, 2024 - Anne Penketh, The Independent
The UN aimed to mark its 60th anniversary with deep reforms. Instead, rows overshadow this week's huge gathering of world leaders.  Go...

How to Help Poor Countries
August 1, 2025 - Nancy Birdsall, Dani Rodrik, and Arvind Subramanian, Foreign Affairs
The year 2005 has become the year of development. In September, at the UN Millennium Summit meeting of heads of state, in New York, leaders of wealthy nations will emphasize their commitment to deeper debt relief and increased aid programs for developing countries. The Millennium Development Goals, the centerpiece of the conference's program, call for halving the levels of world poverty and hunger by 2015. The summit will focus on increasing international aid to 0.7% of donors' gross national product to finance a doubling of aid transfers to especially needy areas, particularly in Africa. With respect to global trade, efforts will center on the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations and opening markets to important exports (such as cotton) from developing countries. The discussions will thus proceed based on two implicit but critical underlying assumptions: that wealthy nations can materially shape development in the poor world and that their efforts to do so should consist largely of providing resources to and trading opportunities for poor countries.  Go...

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