How to Handle the World's Waste

Junkyard Planet is an enjoyable and fascinating read about the multi-billion dollar global trash trade. More like a novel than a dry tome, it is full of subtle insights. 

Neither incineration nor landfill is a sustainable solution to our apparent addiction to waste, but neither is recycling always the green alternative it appears to be.

Reusing is better than recycling, and not using in the first place is best of all. While Junkyard Planet might be read as a celebration of the market, it is also critical of unbridled capitalism. For every entrepreneurial recycler, there is a product that should not be thrown away in the first place—but it is profitable for manufacturers if we do. 

Author and journalist Adam Minter, who was born into a family of scrap dealers, argues passionately that manufacturers need to make technological products that last longer and can be refitted rather than thrown away, if we are to significantly reduce our collective damage to the environment.

Read the full review in F&D magazine

Interview with Adam Minter on U.S. National Public Radio

Find on Goodreads

Review on Mother Jones

Q&A in the New York Times blog:  Part 1; Part 2

Deaton's Great Escape

The world is a better place than it used to be. People are wealthier and healthier, and live longer lives. Yet the escapes from destitution by so many have left gaping inequalities between people and between nations. In "The Great Escape," Angus Deaton--one of the foremost experts on economic development and on poverty--tells the remarkable story of how, starting 250 years ago, some parts of the world began to experience sustained progress, opening up gaps and setting the stage for today's hugely unequal world. Deaton takes an in-depth look at the historical and ongoing patterns behind the health and wealth of nations, and he addresses what needs to be done to help those left behind.Deaton describes vast innovations and wrenching setbacks: the successes of antibiotics, pest control, vaccinations, and clean water on the one hand, and disastrous famines and the HIV/AIDS epidemic on the other. He examines the United States, a nation that has prospered but is today experiencing slower growth and increasing inequality. He also considers how economic growth in India and China has improved the lives of more than a billion people. Deaton argues that international aid has been ineffective and even harmful. He suggests alternative efforts--including reforming incentives to drug companies and lifting trade restrictions--that will allow the developing world to bring about its own Great Escape.

Demonstrating how changes in health and living standards have transformed our lives, "The Great Escape" is a powerful guide to addressing the well-being of all nations. 

Deaton argues that the main barrier to progress in poor countries is not lack of resources but bad governments. Yet it is these governments that receive the aid either directly or indirectly. The flow of foreign money undermines governments’ incentives to raise money from their own taxpayers, which in turn requires growth-friendly policies and reformed institutions. Instead it shores up ill-functioning governments, the very misfortune holding back poor countries.


New York Times review

Princeton University press

The Economist

Bloomberg review

Article in F&D magazine

Riding the Digital Wave

Neat video from the IMF about their publications program:

Continuation of Policy by Other Means

Treasury’s War
The Unleashing of a New Era of Financial Warfare
PublicAffairs, New York, 2013, 336 pp., $27.99 (cloth).

Treasury’s War by Juan C. Zarate offers a guided tour of a decade of the U.S. government’s efforts to wield its financial and economic power to achieve its strategic interests and alter the balance of various conflicts. 

Juan Zarate is well positioned to tell this story: he joined the George W. Bush administration’s Treasury Department as a young, gregarious former prosecutor with antiterrorism credentials just months before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and eventually rose to become deputy national security advisor.­

Zarate was personally involved in many of the developments recounted in the book, including the “war on terror,” the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and efforts to contain the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran and to undermine the Qaddafi and Assad regimes in Libya and Syria.

Following 9/11, financial and economic sanctions and the role of financial intelligence became increasingly important and effective tools in the U.S. national security arsenal. Zarate attributes this to several factors, including the globalization of financial markets and the central role played by the dollar in international trade transactions.

Read the full F&D magazine review.

Read on TheBookWoods.com 

A Forum for Central Bankers--Taking Stock of the World's Oldest IFI

Péter Ákos Bod, Professor at Corvinus University in Budapest, discusses a new book on The Bank for International Settlements (BIS). Set up in May 1930, the BIS is the world's oldest international financial organisation, and brings together central bankers from around the world.

Bod writes in the latest F&D magazine that "the BIS is an international institution that has had to assume new roles under drastically changing global conditions. 

"Collecting banking data, conducting high-quality research, and providing prudential advice are its vital contribution to the proper functioning of modern finance. 

"The common European currency and the foundation of the European Central Bank presented the BIS with new challenges, as does the growing importance of the so-called BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) and other emerging economies, whose central banks want to be heard and taken into account. The BIS will continue and prosper if it keeps reacting as innovatively and efficiently to the objective demands of international high finance as it has throughout its existence.­"

Pulling Together in the Eastern Caribbean

The Eastern Caribbean Economic and Currency Union (OECS/ECCU) is one of four currency unions in the world. 

As in other parts of the world in the aftermath of the global economic and financial crisis, the region is at a crossroads, facing the major challenges of creating jobs, making growth more inclusive, reforming the banking system, and managing volatility, while grappling with high public debt and persistent low economic growth. Policymakers have the critical task of implementing strong reforms to strengthen the monetary union while also laying the foundation for accelerating growth. 

A new handbook provides a comprehensive analysis of the key issues in the OECS/ECCU, including its organization and economic and financial sector linkages, and provides policy recommendations to foster economic growth.

In an interview with IMF Survey magazine, economist Alfred Schipke, who is one of the authors, points out that, while the recent global financial crisis exposed significant weaknesses in the ECCU, it also provides a unique opportunity to move forward with needed reforms to strengthen the union.

Schipke recently co-edited The Eastern Caribbean Economic and Currency Union: Macroeconomics and Financial Systems, which was launched at IMF Headquarters in Washington, DC. IMF Deputy Managing Director Min Zhu, in his opening remarks, reflected on the challenges facing small island economies, particularly with loss of market share in the tourism industry, the mainstay of the economy in most of the island states. 

He said that the IMF and its partners can do a better job in helping the region to further push macroeconomic, as well as structural, reforms, and noted that the new book would help in providing a framework for developing solutions to the ECCU’s financial sector problems and stimulating economic growth.

Tailored Approach to Managing Public Finances

A new book by the IMF--Public Financial Management and Its Emerging Architecture--looks at reforms introduced by governments over the past two decades to improve management of public finances. These innovative ideas and reforms are changing the landscape of public finances and eventually aim to fundamentally change the way governments manage the public’s money.

The global financial and economic crisis highlighted the importance of sound public financial management in ensuring that well-designed fiscal policies are implemented effectively. Sound management of public finances means maintaining a sustainable fiscal position, allocating resources efficiently, and delivering public goods and services effectively.

The book looks at how reforms to public financial management make use of new information, processes, and rules to change the behavior of politicians and public servants to counter the ongoing challenges of managing government’s money. As identified in the book, too often the tendency for policymakers is to spend rather than save in good times; to focus on the short term; and to ignore the future costs of new policies, underlying fiscal risk, and the true state of public finances.

“The global crisis has highlighted that reforming governments’ management of public finances is no longer an option but a necessity. There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution—reforms need to be tailored to countries’ individual circumstances,” said IMF Deputy Managing Director, Min Zhu, who addressed officials, journalists, and academics gathered at a special seminar to discuss the findings in the book.

IMF Survey article 

Book launch and Seminar on Public Financial Management and Its Emerging Architecture

Background and comments

Financial System Still Needs to Be Fixed

The financial system still has not been fixed and remains dangerous and fragile, says Anat Admati of Stanford University and Martin Hellwig from the University of Bonn in their book The Bankers’ New Clothes: What's Wrong with Banking and What to Do about It.  Banks remain too highly leveraged and debt is addictive. But the system can still be fixed, they argue.

Anat Admati and Martin Hellwig speak at the Peterson Institute and discuss whether banking reforms require the sacrifice of lending and economic growth. They outline an ambitious proposal to shore up financial systems and prevent future financial crisis.




Read a review in Finance & Development magazine

Admati exposes the flaws in the banking system that could trigger another financial collapse, and lays out a plan to fix it. She speaks her to Stanford Business.




Report card on global financial reform.

A Trade-off Between Credit and Welfare

The Land of Too Much: American Abundance and the Paradox of Poverty, by Monica Prasad, presents a simple but powerful hypothesis that addresses three questions: Why does the United States have more poverty than any other developed country? Why did it experience an attack on state intervention starting in the 1980s, known today as the neoliberal revolution? And why did it recently suffer the greatest economic meltdown in seventy-five years?

Monica Prasad is Associate Professor of Sociology and Faculty Fellow in the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University.

"Prasad’s history leapfrogs from the early New Deal to the 1970s, when economic stagnation led both Republicans and Democrats to deregulate finance to make credit even more available. At this point, we come to the familiar tale of Americans taking on too much debt, leading to speculative bubbles and the 2008 financial meltdown.
"History is where Prasad’s book runs into problems."
Read a review in Finance & Development magazine.

Prasad in the New York Times

Harvard University Press

The Damaging Effects of Global Inequality

World Bank economist Branko Milanović has a great introduction to global inequality in his The Haves and the Have-Nots: A Brief and Idiosyncratic History of Global Inequality. He uses history, literature, and stories straight out of today’s newspapers, to discuss one of the major divisions in our social lives: between the haves and the have-nots. 

Milanovic reveals just how rich Elizabeth Bennet’s suitor Mr. Darcy really was; how much Anna Karenina gained by falling in love; how wealthy ancient Romans compare to today’s super-rich; where in Kenyan income distribution was Obama’s grandfather; how we should think about Marxism in a modern world; and how location where one is born determines his wealth. 

He goes beyond mere entertainment to explain why inequality matters, how it damages our economics prospects, and how it can threaten the foundations of the social order that we take for granted.

The book, by the lead economist with the World Bank’s research division and one of the world’s leading experts on inequality, was discussed in a three part series in Think Progress:

Part 1:  Inequality: The Global View
Part 2: Five Things You Might Not Know About Inequality
Part 3: Why Rich People Hate Talking About Inequality

See also Finance & Development magazine on inequality.
         Branko Milanovic's article: More or Less
                                 podcast interview on inequality  
          IMF research: Andy Berg and Jonathan Ostry

Inequality may be hazardous to your growth
How inequality affects savings behavior

Branko Milanović talking about inequality research:

Tribute to Chinua Achebe

Good write-up in the Guardian on Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, the father of African literature, who died in Boston, aged 82:

"African literature burst onto the world stage with Achebe's 1958 novel Things Fall Apart, which portrays an Igbo yam farmer's fatal struggle to come to terms with British colonialism in the late 19th century. It remains the best-selling novel ever written by an African author, having sold more than 10-million copies in 50 different languages. Nelson Mandela, who read his books during his 27-year incarceration, once said of him: "He was the writer in whose company the prison walls came down."

Chinua Achebe peered deep into the Nigerian psyche

"Achebe's works do not fear to challenge those post-colonial, independent regimes in Africa who abuse personal power in every possible way – from banning political opposition, to corruption. His novel A Man of the People, a biting satire on corruption in freed African regimes, uses the blade of humour to alert us to official greed and the cant which legitimises it."  from "A mind able to penetrate the mystery of being human."

New York Times ran an eloquent obituary:

In his writing and teaching Mr. Achebe sought to reclaim the continent from Western literature, which he felt had reduced it to an alien, barbaric and frightening land devoid of its own art and culture. He took particular exception to "Heart of Darkness," the novel by Joseph Conrad, whom he thought “a thoroughgoing racist.” 

Do You Still Prefer Print?

Lots of people do. Laura Miller writes in Salon:

"If print could talk, it would surely be telling the world, Mark Twain-style, that reports of its demise have been greatly exaggerated. The market for e-books grew exponentially after Amazon introduced the Kindle, and it’s still one of the most fascinating and unpredictable sectors of a once hidebound industry. But the early-adapter boom is showing signs of flagging and the growth of the e-book market appears to be leveling out. E-books are definitely here to stay, but it seems that many, many readers — a threefold majority, in fact — still prefer print."

Read the Salon article. 

Wired on the future of book publishing.

What  about reselling your ebook? Does it pass your sniff test !!

Democracy Pays Off

Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty by Daron Acemoğlu
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A nation's poverty or prosperity may have as much to do with politics as economics, says Daron Acemoglu.

The MIT professor argues that more democratic countries with inclusive political institutions create sustained prosperity, while “extractive” authoritarian regimes lead toward poverty.

Acemoglu discusses why China is not the exception.

Listen to an interview with Acemoglu: http://www.imf.org/external/podcast/2...

Exploring the Irrational

MIT professor Dan Ariely

Ariely, behavioral economist and author of Predictably Irrational, discusses the irrational decisions that influence our dating lives, our workplace experiences, and our general behavior, up close and personal.

In The Upside of Irrationality, Ariely explores the many ways in which our behavior often leads us astray in terms of our romantic relationships, our experiences in the workplace, and our temptations to cheat. Blending everyday experience with groundbreaking research, Ariely explains how expectations, emotions, social norms and other invisible, seemingly illogical forces skew our reasoning abilities.

He also talks about Wall St. bonuses, incentives, and the role of emotions in the workplace. 

Little Book of Economics

Harvard professor Greg Mankiw gives a thumbs up to Greg Ip, the U.S. Economics Editor of The Economist, based in Washington, D.C.:

"A terrific, very quick, and nontechnical introduction in economics (more macro than micro) is Greg Ip's Little Book of Economics. In case you don't know him, Greg writes for The Economist magazine and was previously at the Wall Street Journal. He now has a new edition of his book, together with an online guide to suggested readings."

See his website

Reexamining Economics

The global economic crisis and the subsequent weak recovery has shaken up macroeconomics.

A conference on the theme “Macro and Growth Policies in the Wake of the Crisis” took place at the IMF’s Headquarters in Washington, DC on March 7-8, 2011. The conference was hosted by four of the world’s most noted economists, including two Nobel laureates: Michael Spence (Stanford University), Joseph Stiglitz (Columbia University), Olivier Blanchard (Economic Counselor and Director of Research at the IMF), and David Romer (University of California, Berkeley). The event brought together leading policymakers and academics from both advanced and emerging countries, as well as representatives from civil society, the private sector, and the media.

The aim of the conference was to distill the policy lessons of the global financial crisis. Participants focused on six key areas: monetary policy, fiscal policy, financial intermediation and regulation, capital account management, growth strategies, and the international monetary system. They also sought to make concrete policy recommendations for how to revive sustainable growth while safeguarding macroeconomic and financial stability.

Review in F&D magazine
LSE review

Conference website In the Wake of the Crisis: Leading Economists Reassess Economic Policy by Michael Spence
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The global economic crisis has challenged Economics to the core. This is the first pass at reexamining Economics in the light of lessons learned and still being learnt.

The IMF held a conference of leading economists in 2011. Conference co-host and Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz noted that “the models that were used before the crisis neither predicted the crisis nor gave us a framework for responding to the crisis when it happened.”

IMF Chief Economist Olivier Blanchard said: "The global economic crisis taught us to question our most cherished beliefs about the way we conduct macroeconomic policy." http://blog-imfdirect.imf.org/2011/03...

This book is a collection of thoughts following the crisis and an examination of the future direction of the international monetary system.

View all my reviews

How Fiscal Policy Can Help Battle Climate Change

Efforts to control atmospheric accumulations of greenhouse gases that threaten to heat up the planet are in their infancy. Although the International Monetary Fund is not an environmental organization, environmental issues matter for the organization's mission when they have major implications for macroeconomic performance and fiscal policy. Climate change clearly passes both these tests. 

A new book, Fiscal Policy to Mitigate Climate Change: A Guide for Policymakers, provides practical guidelines for the design of fiscal policies (carbon taxes and emissions trading systems with allowance auctions) to reduce greenhouse gases.

Providing incentives

Not only are these instruments potentially the most effective at exploiting emission reduction opportunities in the near and longer term, but they can also generate for many countries a valuable new source of government revenue. The chapters, written by leading experts, explain the case for fiscal policies over other approaches; how these policies can be implemented; reasonable levels for emissions prices; policies for the forest sector; appropriate policy for developing countries; the most promising fiscal instruments for climate finance; and lessons to be drawn from prior policy experience.

This is essential reading for policymakers in finance and environment ministries in developed and developing countries alike, and others grappling with balancing environmental and development concerns.

Purchase your copy:

• IMF Bookstore: Fiscal Policy to Mitigate Climate Change: A Guide for Policymakers
• Amazon: Fiscal Policy to Mitigate Climate Change: A Guide for Policymakers 

Also available to IMF eLibrary subscribers: 

• Fiscal Policy to Mitigate Climate Change: A Guide for Policymakers

  + on Goodreads

Fiscal Policy to Mitigate Climate Change: A Guide for Policymakers by International Monetary Fund (IMF)
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Clearly written book on how taxes and other instruments can help in the battle against climate change by reducing energy-related carbon dioxide emissions (which account for about 70% of projected greenhouse gas emissions). By some of the leading experts in the field.

View all my reviews

Krugman on Keynes' General Theory -- "probably the most important book in Economics."

Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman provides a new introduction to The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money by English economist John Maynard Keynes. Krugman says it is probably the most important book in Economics.

Currencies -- the Role of the Dollar

University of California Economics Professor Barry Eichengreen discusses what factors could lead to the rise or fall of the U.S. dollar and the future of other international currencies.

Exorbitant Privilege: The Rise and Fall of the Dollar and the Future of the International Monetary System, by Barry Eichengreen, Oxford University Press.

Book discussion at the IMF:

Discussants --

Min Zhu, Deputy Managing Director
James Boughton, Fund Historian, Moderator
Barry Eichengreen, Professor of Economics and Political Science, University of California, Berkeley
Ted Truman, Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute
Isabelle Mateos y Lago, Advisor, Strategy, Policy, and Review Department

IMF Survey magazine report of the book discussion

Eichengreen’s new work challenges the view of inertia in the international monetary system, arguing that the dollar overtook the pound sterling in just one decade following the formation of the U.S. Federal Reserve. As such, the system can evolve quickly. Like the dollar one hundred years ago, once the prerequisites are in place, currencies of economies that are large and important in global trade and finance can internationalize rapidly.

Changing Times -- Bookshops in Kolkata

Fascinating video about College Street in Kolkata -- the throbbing home of a maze of old book shops and stalls and this traditional place of learning and trading hosts the largest non-trading book fair in the world every year. But encroaching globalization, in the form of a modern and fancy book mall being built opposite, casts a shadow over this traditional and treasured place.

Hard Bound -- Birth of a Book

Wonderful video on how bound hardback books are made:

The book being printed is Suzanne St Albans’ 'Mango and Mimosa' published as part of the Slightly Foxed series.

Video shot, directed & edited by Glen Milner

Paying the Price for Inequality

Economists Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman agree on many things. But the two have been at odds over whether economic inequality is holding back the recovery. Stiglitz says it is, and Krugman, while agreeing the inequality is unfortunate, says it is not. "Economics is not a morality play," Krugman observes. See Krugman vs Stiglitz in the New Republic. 

Stiglitz talks about his book, "The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future," in the video below.

Stiglitz passionately describes how unrestrained power and greed are writing an epitaph for the American dream.

New York Times review

Review in the Observer

All for One -- F&D magazine on inequality

Banking on Europe

The IMF has published a new policy paper on banking supervision in Europe as part of its Staff Discussion Note series. The paper, titled "A Banking Union for the Euro Area," argues that a union is the logical conclusion of the idea that integrated banking systems require integrated prudential oversight.

The case for a banking union for the euro area is both immediate and longer term. 

Moving responsibility for potential financial support and bank supervision to a shared level can reduce fragmentation of financial markets, stem deposit flight, and weaken the vicious loop of rising sovereign and bank borrowing costs. In steady state, a single framework should bring a uniformly high standard of confidence and oversight, reduce national distortions, and mitigate the buildup of concentrated risk that compromises systemic stability. "Time is of the essence," the paper argues.

Read an article in IMF Survey magazine

Eating Better

An economic approach to food

How to find the best tortillas while traveling in Mexico? Why is American food often so bad today? Is agribusiness good for the global economy? Prolific author, blogger and economist Tyler Cowen takes on these questions--and many more--in his new book, “An Economist Gets Lunch New Rules for Everyday Foodies.”

Cowen's economic approach to good food applies the following principle: “Food is a product of economic supply and demand, so try to figure out where the supplies are fresh, the suppliers are creative, and the demanders are informed.” 

Read a review in F&D magazine: Food for Thought 

Listen to a podcast interview with Tyler Cowen.

Spies, Gold, and Whitewash

Interesting review in the latest Finance & Development magazine by Eric Rauchway, History Professor at the University of California at Davis, of the "The Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White, and the Making of a New World Order," by Benn Steil.

Rauchway says the book is marred by "far-reaching claims based on inadequate evidence," particularly about the role of White, who was a senior U.S. Treasury official now believed to have given intelligence clandestinely to the Soviet Union (a subject touched on by IMF historian James Boughton).

The 1944 Bretton Woods conference laid the foundations of the modern international monetary system, but little was known about the exact proceedings of that historic gathering, until now. A U.S. treasury economist’s discovery of the original transcript of that meeting provides an insight into the characters and the intense debate surrounding the birth of two major international organizations. Listen to this podcast with Kurt Schuler

Read the F&D books section. 

New York Times review : "... should become the gold standard on its topic. The details are addictive. But be warned: the book is dense...  Perhaps that is what is missing here — an unmistakable voice, a sense that this rich history is told by one mind. The book sometimes reads like a succession of brilliant but loosely connected graduate seminar papers — an assemblage, a very fine one, but an assemblage nevertheless."

The History of EMU

Princeton History Professor Harold James’s Making the European Monetary Union combines a concise historical narrative of the events leading up to the European Monetary Union (EMU) with a thought-provoking account of its origin, performance, and problems. This in-depth history will appeal to academic readers looking for extensive details about the EMU."This fascinating and well-written book couldn’t be timelier," says LSE Fellow John Ryan.

Full review here.

Sharing Publications with the Disabled

IMF Publications has agreed with Bookshare, a global online library for blind, vision impaired, learning disabled, and physically disabled readers, to make IMF books and other publications available through the program.

Bookshare makes publications accessible to those with a disability that makes it difficult for them to read a printed book. We have provided the online library with digital versions of all IMF publications and they in turn transform them into their ‘Daisy’ format which can be read using free software that reads the book aloud (text-to-speech) and/or displays the text of the book on a computer screen or Braille access device.

We are currently working with Bookshare to bring the Daisy files into the IMF eLibrary, so we can provide accessible books directly to our own subscribers.

Bookshare is a global online library for blind, vision impaired, learning disabled, and physically disabled readers to download into a variety of formats (Braille, synthetic speech, speech to text, large print). 

Over 60 publishers have signed with Bookshare and are donating digital files, including all the major trade publishing houses (Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Hachette, and Scholastic) as well as top university presses (Cambridge, Chicago, Princeton, Columbia, California, NYU, Michigan, Stanford) and K-12 and post-secondary publishers. https://www.bookshare.org/  

Getting a Grip on Public Spending

Two books from the IMF are putting the spotlight firmly on the big spending issues of our times in advanced economies and some emerging markets--health care and pensions.

Health care reform is likely to remain a key fiscal policy challenge in both advanced and emerging economies in coming years. In the advanced economies, the health sector has been one of the main drivers of government expenditure, accounting for about half of the rise in total spending over the past forty years. 

Aging populations

These spending pressures are expected to intensify over the next two decades, reflecting the aging of the population, income growth, and continued technological innovations in health care. 

Spending increases will come at a time when countries need to undertake fiscal consolidation to reduce public debt ratios in the wake of the global financial crisis.

In the emerging economies, health care reform is also a key issue, given substantial lags in health indicators and limited fiscal resources. For these economies, the challenge will be to expand public coverage without undermining fiscal sustainability. The Economics of Public Health Care Reform in Advanced and Emerging Economies provides new insights into these challenges and potential policy responses, with cross-country analysis and case studies.

Pension reform is also high on the policy agenda of many advanced and emerging market economies. In advanced economies the challenge is generally to contain future increases in public pension spending as the population ages. In emerging market economies, the challenges are often different. 

Where pension coverage is extensive, the issues are similar to those in advanced economies. Where pension coverage is low, the key challenge will be to expand coverage in a fiscally sustainable manner. The Challenge of Public Pension Reform in Advanced and Emerging Economies examines the outlook for public pension spending over the coming decades and the options for reform in 52 advanced and emerging market economies.

The Joy of Books

Wonderful stop motion video by Type Books in Toronto

The Joy of Books ...

Closing a Failed Bank

A step-by-step guide



Closing a Failed Bank: Resolution Practices and Procedures by David C. (David Cameron) Parker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

At a time when bank restructuring is crucial for many countries around the world, this guide from the IMF on how to address problem banks is both timely and detailed.
The book addresses the process of closing a bank in a practical way, with forms and checklists for the process included on a companion CD-ROM.

View all my reviews