The assumption that Europe, Japan and the United States could fend off recession at home by increasing exports to BRIC economies has been proved wrong along with the grander notion about the decoupling of emerging markets.
As global trade continues to decrease along with commodity prices, what should be done differently by governments and industry to jump-start global economic growth?
Bio
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is the 14th and current President of the Philippines. A professor of economics, Arroyo entered government in 1987, serving as assistant secretary and undersecretary of the Department of Trade and Industry upon the invitation of President Corazon Aquino.
After serving as a senator from 1992 to 1998, she was elected to the vice presidency under President Joseph Estrada, despite having run on an opposing ticket. After Estrada was accused of corruption, she resigned her cabinet position as Secretary of Social Welfare and Development and joined the growing opposition to the president, who faced impeachment.
Estrada was soon forced from office by what its advocates would ascribe to peaceful street demonstrations of the EDSA Revolution of 2001, but which critics credit to a conspiracy among political and business elites, military top brass and Catholic Church bishop Jaime Cardinal Sin. Arroyo was sworn into the presidency at around noon on January 20, 2001 amidst the EDSA II crowd, hours before Estrada left Malacanang.
She was elected to a full six-year presidential term in the controversial May 2004 Philippine elections, and was sworn in on June 30, 2004.
Angel Gurria
Angel Gurria is Mexico's former Finance Minister (1999-2000) and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1994-1999) in the Ernesto Zedillo Administration.
He also is the Secretary-General for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris.
Yoshihiko Miyauchi
Yoshihiko Miyauchi is the Chairman and Chief Executive Office of the Orix Corporation in Japan.
In addition to being one of Japan's top corporate leaders, Miyauchi is a strong advocate of regulatory reform and serves as president of the Council for Promoting Regulatory Reform, an advisory board to the prime minister of Japan. In this capacity, he is often referred to as “Mr. Deregulation” and has been described as the free market economy czar of Japan. He serves as a director on the boards of many major corporations including Fuji Xerox, Showa Shell Sekiyu and Sony.
John Monks
John Monks is the General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) in Brussels.He was re-elected as General Secretary in 2007.
Monks has also sat on numerous other bodies, including Acas from 1979 until 1995. In 2000, he agreed to chair the Co-operative Commission, reporting in 2001 with recommendations for the co-operative movement. Since 2008 he is Vice-President of European Movement international.
Joseph E. Stiglitz
Joseph E. Stiglitz is a professor at Columbia University and the chair of the university's Committee on Global Thought. In 2001, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for his analyses of markets with asymmetric information. He was a member of the Council of Economic Advisers under Clinton and later the chief economist for the World Bank. His latest book is Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy.
Abhisit Vejjajiva
Abhisit Vejjajiva is the Prime Minister of Thailand.
Abhisit was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England to a family of Thai physicians. He was educated at Eton and Oxford and successfully ran for MP of Bangkok under the Democrat Party following the 1991 NPKC military coup. He quickly rose through party ranks before failing in a bid to become party leader in 2001. He was appointed party leader after the Democrat Party's overwhelming defeat in the 2005 elections.
Abhisit married Dr Pimpen Sakuntabhai, a former dentist and now a lecturer at the Department of Mathematics at Chulalongkorn University. They have two children.
International body created in 1999 that provides a forum for strategic economic communication between industrialized and developing countries. The G20 originated as a response to the economic crises of the late 1990s. Its membership comprises 19 countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and the European Union. Meetings are held annually, and each summit is hosted and chaired by a different member. In addition, emergency summits may be called. Like the G7 (seeG8), the G20 limits its discussion to economic matters.
The economy of United States is the largest national economy in world in both nominal value and by purchasing power parity. Its nominal GDP was estimated as $14.4 trillion in 2008, which is about three times that of the second largest economy, Japan. Though it has the largest economy, it is not the reason for discharge in recession. Surprisingly, an estimated $ 1.6 trillion of U.S securities are owned by China. China is the largest foreign financer of the record S.S public debt, holding $801.5 billion in Treasury bonds. Economic recovery is a nice phrase but when will we have it? No one knows.
It seems to me that the rest of the world outside the United States is side-stepping the United States. That is to say that any talk about the U.S. simply brings eye-rolling or at least that the U.S. money policy regarding the Federal Reserve Bank is touted as the main problem with it constantly printing money that has nothing to back it up, or 'coverage', like the one audience member mentioned in his question to the panel. The fact is that it is true. The Federal Reserve bank in the U.S. simply prints money...driving inflation and ultimately leading to a collapse of value and in turn a collapse in the economy. I think everyone needs to watch Dmitry Orlov's presentation right here on Fora TV. He hits it all right on the head. There will be a time when the world will leave the United States in the dust and move on without it.
Everything that has been questioned about our economic system and current crisis is limited to the same frames that guided us to this situation.
These frames are the ethics valued by our society which are reflected upon the way capitalism has been carried to this day.
Banking policies, government action, green energy, global governance, failures and opportunities, these are the topics being discussed everyday. All of them significant indeed. Nevertheless, subjugated to the individualistic, selfish, shortsighted drive that has pushed this consequences in our way.
We have not questioned openly the ethics of the system yet. We have not had our leaders, our politicians, our economists, our friends, ourselfs, reflect on the ethics of today, of our system.
To see real change we have to address the root of the problem.
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