From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
Women perform two-thirds of all labour and produce more than half of the world's food. Yet, women own only about one percent of the world's assets, and represent 70 percent of those living in absolute poverty.
In the advanced countries, it is a very challenging time for people in the middle-income and middle-education range. They are being subjected to greater competition from labour saving technology.
If you want to rebalance, you have to understand that you must rebalance from construction and finance into something else. But what? It's very hard to see where any sustainable growth can come from.
Historically, Africa has been viewed by many countries as a 'burden,' whereas the BRIC's see it as an enormous opportunity. To put this in context, Europe has twice as much trade with Africa as does even China, so Europe must wake up to the fact that Africa is an important and relevant opportunity, not a burden.
We measure these flows entirely based on data filed by governments at the World Bank and the IMF. We apply two very established economic models. One is the World Bank's residual method, and the other is the IMF Direction of Trade statistical approach. These models have been used by economists for decades but we were the first group to apply these models to all developing countries.
Asia region countries are able to shave not just 10% off process-costs versus their western counterparts, but often 60-80%, often bringing great improvements and advantages in the process. This ensures they are more agile and able to sustain competitive advantage through continual innovation.
Africa is an enormous continent, larger than the US, China and Europe combined. It represents 20% of the global land mass, and only 10% of the world's population. It offers an un-crowded space of opportunities including minerals, natural resources, water and agriculture.
Now, the internet has democratized this, and you don't need to be wealthy to be a patron. You can help bring something to life with $10 because you like the project, not because you see it as a financial return.
If you look historically at the historical contours of wealth- it's primarily created through private ownership. That's always been the case- and I believe it always be. Having said that…. the lines begin to get blurred when you start to look at places like Latin America and Mexico where the state-owned enterprises are dominated by individuals- like a Carlos Slim, for example…. or if you look at state-owned assets being privatised in a place like Russia where former KGB agents are now industrial capitalists.
If you look at the decade which ended in 2009, our estimate is around US$8 trillion. As previously mentioned, we believe this is a very conservative estimate because there are major parts of illicit flows that are not included in that figure.
The scale and scope of this threat is extraordinary. It amounts to US$320 billion per annum or, to put it another way, half a percent of global GDP. That is just the economic cost of drug trafficking. As far as the social and health risks are concerned, we believe that around 250,000 people each and every year die because of drugs.
The Federal Reserve has, historically, used the discount rate as a tool to 'test' market reactions to monetary policy. We are in extremely volatile markets, and raising the discount rate allows the Fed to observe the reaction their actions will have once they are reflected in the core 'Funds Rate'.