From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
The general theory that integration is good for better allocation of resources is not the big thing, the big thing is that it makes it harder for governments to play with financial markets.
The policies they prescribe are a continuation or exaggeration of the previous policies that created the structural problems in the first place.
Transport, natural disasters, the distribution of resources, globalisation – engineers and inventors have the traits and skillset to solve the problems the world faces today. And therefore have the potential to impact the world and economy. The economy can be boosted by exporting tangible technology that is in global demand. This is the hands of engineers.
Because of connectivity, India has increased mobility. People from Orissa work in Gujarat, people from Gujarat can start businesses elsewhere. Because of telecommunications, a farmer can now get information on seeds and fertilisers.
Time wealth is all about having the freedom to decide how you spend your time, who you spend it with, where you spend it, and what you trade it for. It boils down to one simple truth: recognizing time as your most precious asset—the only thing you can never get back.
My big contention is that we've misread Adam Smith. People don't realise that Adam Smith was a moral philosopher before an economics expert. His first book, before he wrote 'The Wealth of Nations' was, 'The Theory on Moral Sentiments'. In that book, you find the answer for what the invisible hand really is! He never accelerated the narrative that there should be completely unfettered free markets. He believed markets took place in the context of a moral framework and foundation.
most of the half-trillion dollars received by Africa since the 1960s has funded military coups and civil wars, not economic development. Between 1982 and 1985, Zimbabwe spent $1.3 out of $1.5 billion of foreign assistance on arms and ammunition.
A corporate bond is ultimate a long-term loan structured in the form of a bond. Corporate entities are not default-remote and are not guaranteed to pay-back their debts.
We have lived through an era where success has been defined only in financial terms- leaving out any consideration of the impact of business on communities or the world. Just because accounting standards don't require you to measure certain things, doesn't mean those things aren't real.
We define the credit risk of a bond portfolio as the volatility of the CDS basket which would perfectly hedge the sovereign risk of the portfolio.
What I believe is the bigger benefit; is that it makes it much more difficult for governments to trick the domestic financial system to favour particular borrowers, to milk savers through variable interest rates and so forth.
You are all so smart… and this was so bad… how could your discipline have not seen it coming? Implicit in the Queen's question was the assertion that economists don't get out enough and talk to people in the wider economy.