Read more about the article Secular Stagnation and the Big Balance Sheet Economy

Secular Stagnation and the Big Balance Sheet Economy

Private balance sheets have risen relative to GDP in advanced economies in the last decades, in tandem with a trend of decline in long-term real interest rates. Asset-driven macroeconomic cycles, along with a structural trend of rising influence of finance on income growth and distribution, have become part of the landscape. Underlying secular trends of stagnation may also be suggested, making the macroeconomic dynamics dependent on the balance sheet economy getting bigger and bigger.

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Read more about the article Global inequality

Global inequality

The global trend towards increasing globalization since the 1990s seems to have had two different distributional consequences: income inequality between countries has declined, while economic inequality within countries has increased. However, technological progress has made the biggest contribution to rising income inequality over the past two decades. Domestic policies – fiscal policies, social protection - are the locus where inequality is to be tackled.

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Read more about the article Threat of ‘currency bullying’

Threat of ‘currency bullying’

The possibility of mutually damaging financial volatility in the US and China may limit the extent of 'currency bullying' being used as a proxy in the countries' trade war. Nonetheless, rhetoric from Washington is likely to remain clamorous as the US trade and current account deficits rise and global imbalances worsen.

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Read more about the article Overlapping Globalizations

Overlapping Globalizations

Current technological developments in manufacturing are likely to lead to a partial reversal of the wave of fragmentation and global value chains that was at the core of the rise of North-South trade from 1990 onward. At the same time, China – the main hub of the global-growth-cum-structural-change of that period – may attempt to extend the previous wave through its One Belt, One Road initiative.

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Read more about the article The Metamorphosis of Financial Globalisation

The Metamorphosis of Financial Globalisation

After a strong rising tide starting in the 1990s, financial globalisation seems to have reached a plateau since the global financial crisis. However, that apparent stability has taken place along a deep reshaping of cross-border financial flows, featuring de-banking and an increasing weight of non-banking financial cross-border transactions. Sources of potential instability and long-term funding challenges have morphed accordingly

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