From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
When you empower people economically, your social programmes go further. The idea that there is a stark separation between a social program that's sustainable and economic program that's a luxury doesn't fit the reality. When you join economic empowerment to social protection, you get double the benefit.
I use the word repugnance to describe transactions that some people would like to engage in, that other people would not like them to; it's often hard to pin-down what harm the transaction does to anyone else.
There is a naïve form which doesn't recognise the bubble, and thinks that real-estate will go up forever. There is then a second order overconfidence where someone recognises a bubble but feels they will escape it when other people don't.
One thing that really helped us was NOT following the IMF prescription, and hence I think the fact that we insisted on having growth (alongside stability) was something that made for a big change in Brazil.
Morality represents the way we would like the world to work, and economics represents how it actually does work.
How would one expect society to develop 'actualisation' and 'esteem' driving characteristics (economic growth and spending) when the basic 'physiological' and 'safety' needs (food security, employment, health, property) are not met.
It turns out that for every ipod sold by Apple, it makes the US trade deficit go up by USD 150. Is the US poorer because the world loves ipods? No, we accrue the high-value elements like intellectual property, profit, and so forth, and outsource the lower-value parts of the chain.
While many investors were caught in this crisis, the leading economists in the world saw it coming.
What on earth they [referring to government] will do next…
The rights of children are not yet acknowledged as the key driver for human progress and development and hence they are not getting priority in economic, social or political discourse.
For large corporations, globalization opened up opportunities without the correlate responsibilities which usually travel with that- so things that banks must do at home they didn't have to do abroad. This took globalization out of balance, into a vicious cycle – and we're now dealing with the consequences of that.
So when the economy's booming, banks are going to need 9.5% common equity, 11% Tier 1 capital, and 13% Tier 2 capital.