International Economics: IB Economics

Are international institutions past their sell-by date?

Certainly, Nick Dearden thinks that the current impasse regarding vaccines and intellectual property rights and the lack of concerted action over global food prices suggests that the World Trade Organisation is no longer as relevant as it needs to be.

Gordon Brown writes in today's Guardian about the inequalities of vaccination across the world. Rates of vaccination are far higher in the developed world, to the extent that the West are destroying vaccines whilst the poorest go without. He argues that until we tackle this, then coronavirus is going to remain a concern, and the global economy is going to struggle to recover. 

Gordon Brown writes in today's Guardian, again highlighting the twin speed nature of the recovery from coronavirus - with the west preparing to administering booster shots, and many in Africa still unprotected. 

This asks fundamental questions about global inequality and notions of fairness as well as whether or not the relative selfishness of the west will actually prove to be in their best interests. 

And here's his call to action.

Don't let it be said that the IMF would be better spending money on poverty reduction that graphics...

Here's the IMF's social media on the latest growth forecasts.

This World Bank clip looks at the difficulties facing South Asian economies in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, noting that vaccines are the key to recovery, but also highlighting the fact that a lack of tax revenues are going to mean that there is going to be a struggle to fund education and healthcare appropriately in the next few years. 

The issue of the global effects of the coronavirus pandemic are touched upon by Mohamed El-Irian in this Guardian article about the need for the G7 group of developed nations to play a pro-active role in ensuring that the roll out of vaccines is international and to allow for developing nations to get vaccines too, otherwise even developed world vaccinations will be far less effective than would otherwise be the case, and the impact on global growth will be less marked.   

Larry Elliott echoes Gordon Brown's call to arms to stop so-called 'vaccine apartheid, suggesting that the pandemic will only end when there's truly a global vaccination programme, rather than one focused on developed economies at the expense of developing economies.  

Gordon Brown again writes about the inequality in the distribution of coronavirus vaccines, arguing that such is the level of production, and also the level of waste in the developed world, that the global rollout of vaccines in the developing world is grossly unfair. 

And the accompanying illustration is very clever too.

One for the money for old rope file - I can't imagine Nouriel Roubini derived much pleasure from churning this out - and the risk of inflation gets another mention...

Gordon Brown - one of my favourite Stranglers' tracks - has railed against the inequality between the developed and developing world as regards the coronavirus vaccine. 

Not only is it fundamentally unfair, but he also sees Britain's decision to cut its foreign aid budget as indicative of a lack of moral leadership.

The latest IMF forecast predict faster than expected recoveries for both the global economy and the UK. The global forecast is for 6% growth this year and 4.4% next year; in the UK's case, it's 5.3% this year and 5..1% next year. 

However, on the flipside, the rate of recovery could differ depending upon the success of vaccine rollouts, and previous gains in  terms of poverty reduction have been reversed.  

The Head of the WTO, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has used her platform to argue that Covid-vaccine manufacturers need to ensure that there are enough vaccines going to be made available for the world's poor, and that id they are unable to produce them, they should voluntarily license manufacturers in developing countries to produce them.

She's right: it is the ultimate inequality if the developed world can be vaccinated and the developing world cannot, and we should follow the AstraZeneca/India lead.