BWC Blog

Can We Expect a “New Bretton Woods”?

As the world economy and its governance structure continue to evolve at an accelerating rate, calls for reform of multilateral institutions are growing louder.

Can the West Counter the BRI?

It is no secret that the West is exceedingly uncomfortable with China’s Belt and Road Initiative (the BRI) and its role in building infrastructure in developing countries, and for good reasons. The terms of these investments by China’s parastatal banks are opaque and recent research reveals that contracts include non-disclosure covenants to keep them so. That said, it is China that is pouring the most money into infrastructure investments into Sub-Saharan Africa in particular in a way that no one else can match.

Bretton [email protected] and the 2050 Global Economy

July 1, 2019 will mark 75 years since the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire in 1944. It is an understatement to say that the global economy has changed since the delegates of 44 nations gathered at Bretton Woods; yet, the changes of the past 75 years may pale in comparison to the economic transformations ahead.

Bretton Woods and Emerging Markets Investment: Toward A New Golden Age

Both the Committee and emerging market investment field have been in existence for roughly half the period of the 75-year history of the Bretton Woods institutions.

Bretton Woods 4.0 Finding New Relevance in a New World Order

Institutions are products of their time, and essentially all have sell-by dates. They typically arise to meet a given challenge, and if proven durable become embedded in the fabric of their environment—at least, up to a point. 

Biden Should Implement a “Yellen Bond” Plan for African Debt

The OECD has estimated that external capital inflows to emerging market countries shrank in 2020 by about $700 billion relative to 2019.

Answering Yellen’s Call for a Shake Up of the International Economic System

In these times of information overload it is easy to overlook groundbreaking news.  In the midst of the G7 walk out of the G20 meetings and subsequent inability of the International Monetary Fund to issue a communique at its annual meetings during a period of unprecedented economic uncertainty, US Treasury Secretary called for a fundamental reform of the international financial architecture.  This is a major event for US policy, which is at the epicenter of the problem and the solution.

Africa Sovereign Debt Spiral Foments Frustration

This past year, a decade-long Africa commercial borrowing binge with $30bn worth of bonds outstanding came to a screeching halt amid outright or near defaults, with distressed spreads as a measure of risk of over 1,000 basis points to US Treasuries for the sovereign benchmark index cross-section.

Debt topped the agenda at the US-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, DC in December.

A Call for Institutional Entrepreneurship

Beverly Barrett, PhD is policy program advisor and economics faculty at the University of St. Thomas, Houston. Dr. Barrett is the author of Globalization and Change in Higher Education: The Political Economy of Policy Reform in Europe (Palgrave Macmillan). You may email her at [email protected]. This blog is a part of special series on the coronavirus.