Trade and Globalization

At the last World Economic Roundtable, Michael Kumhof, Deputy Division Chief of the Modeling Division of the International Monetary Fund, and Raymond Torres, Director of the International Institute for Labour Studies of the International Labour Organization, came to discuss the relationship between inequality and financial crises. 

This post originally appeared on the SPINNAKER Network.

Two weeks ago, President Obama announced Congress’s approval of three long-awaited trade deals with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea. They have been both hailed and rejected by the usual suspects, but the debate has centered largely on employment and labor issues. However, there’s also something to say about what these deals mean for financial inclusion, specifically with regards to mobilizing savings for the poor.

“In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights called for social protection for all in the form of adequate life standards, access to health, education, food, housing, and social security …Despite the six decades of strong economic growth that followed [its] adoption, access to adequate social protection, benefits and services remains a privilege offered to relatively few people.”

-- This is a guest post by Jay Pelosky, Principal, J2Z Advisory, LLC.  It was originally posted on the Huffington Post. --

While much has transpired in financial markets over the past quarter, much remains unclear about the road ahead. Bond yield melt down, equity trap door decline, financial repression, sovereign debt infection, all have become front-page news. Does this mean all is in the price and one can go bargain hunting? Not so fast remains the counsel, not so fast.

In today's Huffington Post, Bruce Jentleson, a policy wonk, and Jay Pelosky, a seasoned global investor, argue that the public and private sectors in the United States must cooperate if the country is to "revitalize domestically and compete globally."

The economic environment in America today is more dire than most of us have ever known. We are in the midst of an unemployment emergency, in essence a jobless recovery: notwithstanding recent marginal upticks in official U.S. jobs numbers, there will be no fundamental improvement in the unemployment picture unless major new national economic strategy initiatives are taken. Who will step up to drive them forward?

Lincoln Ellis, Managing Director of the Strategic Financial Group and Chief Investment Officer of the Linn Group, spoke with Bloomberg’s Matt Miller and Carol Massar yesterday about the World Economic Roundtable.

** Please note the change of location.**

New research from the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) finds that more than 60 percent of global growth to 2025 is likely to come from just 600 cities. And contrary to conventional wisdom, this is not a story about megacities. In fact, almost 40 percent of global growth is expected to come from just over 400 fast-growing middleweight cities–with populations under 10 million–in emerging market regions.

-- This is a guest post by Jay Pelosky, Principal, J2Z Advisory, LLC --  Japan’s massive earthquake, follow on tsunami and subsequent nuclear power plant upheaval have reinforced uncertainty regarding the strength of global economic activity and the appropriate financial assets prices to reflect that activity. The Arab Spring and EU debt crisis meant such uncertainty was already in the air in the weeks preceding the March 11^th earthquake.