This paper explores from a regional perspective the distorted nature of trade in energy products within the CIS countries. The persistence of pricing distortions, barter arrangements, and discriminatory access to pipelines, as well as failure to honor contracts, has disrupted and distorted energy exports to non-CIS countries, undermined energy sector reforms, and distorted investment decisions. The paper focuses on cross-border issues as an integral component of the wider problem of inefficie...

Pan-African banks are expanding rapidly across the continent, creating cross-border networks, and having a systemic presence in the banking sectors of many Sub-Saharan African countries. These banking groups are fostering financial development and economic integration, stimulating competition and efficiency, introducing product innovation and modern management and information systems, and bringing higher skills and expertise to host countries. At the same time, the rise of pan-African bank...

Get ready to travel beyond the boundaries of the known world!In this new collection, 15 writers venture Out There and return to tell of their encounters with aliens and fairies ancient forest dwellers and interplanetary colonists. As their journeys take us through space and time, their tales find answers for what lives closest to our human hearts – love, loss and memory, and all the uncharted connections they trace.Stories by: Amanda M. Blake, Kit ...

Published in English and French under the co-direction of Hans-Helmut Kotz (Resident Fellow, Center for European Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts) and Jean-Paul Pollin (professor emeritus, University of Orléans), issue 153 of the Revue d'économie financière focuses on inflation.This issue features 28 authors and 19 articles and is divided into 4 chapters:- Histories of inflation- Inflation: differing across countries and income categori...

Diet has consistently been shown to be the dominant source of exposure to the majority of contaminants that pose a threat to human health. However, there is concern that current methods for detection, analysis and risk assessment of chemical residues in food may not accurately reflect the complex cocktail of contaminants to which different groups may be exposed.Chemical contaminants in foods: Understanding and managing risks provides a comprehensive overview of new approac...

Some years—1789, 1929, 1989—change the world suddenly. Or do they? In 2020, a pandemic converged with an economic collapse, inequalities exploded, and institutions weakened. Yet these crises sprang not from new risks but from known dangers. The world—like many patients—met 2020 with a host of preexisting conditions, which together tilted the odds toward disaster. Perhaps 2020 wasn’t the year the world changed; perhaps it was simply the moment the world finally understood its deadly diagnos...

New perspectives on digital scholarship that speak to today's computational realitiesScholars across the humanities, social sciences, and information sciences are grappling with how best to study virtual environments, use computational tools in their research, and engage audiences with their results. Classic work in science and technology studies (STS) has played a central role in how these fields analyze digital technologies, but many of its key examples do not sp...

Jim O'Neill, one of the most influential economists today, shares his insights on how and why he developed one of the most compelling economic concepts of our time in The Growth Map.'O'Neill has redefined how investors and Western business leaders see the world. This book tells the unlikely story of how O'Neill developed this path-breaking idea . . . lively, powerful and highly accessible' Gillian Tett, Financial TimesTen years ago, Jim O'Neill pr...

How trade imbalances spurred on the global financial crisis and why we aren't out of trouble yetChina's economic growth is sputtering, the Euro is under threat, and the United States is combating serious trade disadvantages. Another Great Depression? Not quite. Noted economist and China expert Michael Pettis argues instead that we are undergoing a critical rebalancing of the world economies. Debunking popular misconceptions, Pettis shows that severe trade imbalance...

Is China a rogue donor, as some media pundits suggest? Or is China helping the developing world pave a pathway out of poverty, as the Chinese claim? In the last few years, China's aid program has leapt out of the shadows. Media reports about huge aid packages, support for pariah regimes, regiments of Chinese labor, and the ruthless exploitation of workers and natural resources in some of the poorest countries in the world sparked fierce debates. These debates, however, took placewith very ...

Lauded by reviewers and scholars alike, Paul Blustein's The Chastening examines the role of the International Monetary Fund in the series of economic crises that rocked the globe in the last decade. Based on hundreds of interviews with officials at the IMF, the World Bank, the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the White House, and many foreign governments, The Chastening offers a behind-the-scenes look at the Fund during an extraordinarily turbulent period in modern eco...

The idea that Brazil, Russia, India and China (the "BRICs") are the rising stars of the world economy is now widely accepted. However, the "old" developed nations have not adjusted to the new world order as they struggle with the legacy of the financial crisis. The BRICs and others (especially Korea) have already ‘emerged’ as economic powers. This requires rapid adjustment in economic policies and especially global economic institutions. This book makes a strong case for a radical overhaul...