If the whole world went into recession, all the major central banks could cut interest rates and expand the money supply. |
If we continue this combination of high rhetoric and grossly insufficient action, I think the risks to (the United States ') own national security ... and the risk to global stability are very real. |
If we did go into a recession, something that's always possible for the U.S. or Europe, we could lower interest rates and expand the money supply without worrying about the price of gold. |
If you have a lot of short-term debt, it means that all of that money can be demanded in a very short period of time. Technically, short-term debt means money that's coming due within a year. Typically, it means money that's coming due within 30 to 90 days. |
If you have billions and billions of dollars coming due in a country in a short period of time, and if a sense of panic develops among your creditors, so that everybody demands the money out all at once, it's almost inevitable that the debtor economy will collapse, because it won't be able to come up with that amount of money in a short period. |
In 1991, a miraculous thing happened, and that's the Soviet Union ended. So there was an opportunity to build a very healthy and new world, on the basis of the change that the Russian people themselves wanted. But for Russia to make that change was going to be one of the most remarkably difficult and complex passages imaginable. |
In 2001, the prices of medications have continued to fall rapidly, ... Even though antiretroviral drug prices have declined to around $500 per year, this is still far above what poor countries can afford without donor assistance. |
In Asia, a lot of successful economies that had been living on their own saving, decided to open up their financial markets to international capital in the early 1990s. So here were countries doing quite well, but they decided they'd borrow a bit more and do even better. |
In the early 1990s, when a lot of the developing world opened up to international capital flows... they ended up in very good long-term projects, but projects that weren't going to pay off for five or 10 or 20 years. |
It's not so unusual to run out of someone else's currency. |
It's time for other candidates to come forward that have experience in development. |
Let's start fresh with Russia on some real help and some real reform. |
Most companies that are interested in working in the poorest places don't know how to do it right now, ... don't know how we fit in the broader scheme. This provides a framework where all of this makes sense. The private initiative can get this process going. I am counting not only on financing, but technology and ideas. There's going to be a tremendous amount of learning about best approaches. |
My sense is that the IMF does not have a proper modus operandi for the current conditions in the world. They misjudge rhetorically. They misjudge tactically. They misunderstand the dangers of financial panic, and the results are terrible. |
No serious work whatever is under way within the government to link annual budgetary allocations with the international development goals the United States has endorsed. For example, the Bush administration has failed to produce even one credible document spelling out America's role in a global-scale war against AIDS. |