Re-making Financial Policy to Meet Society’s Needs
By Yaga Venugopal Reddy
The future of finance, and in particular saving it from a popular backlash against the global financial crisis and related crisis-management policies, has rightly become a matter of great concern. There is broad agreement that finance has, as in the past, the potential to do good, which should be harnessed by all. However, it is essential to minimise its potential to do harm. From a central banker’s point of view, there are several issues in this search for good finance for the future, but there are three inter-related issues that I want to comment on today: (a) how to ensure that the financial sector serves the society better; (b) how to integrate financial sector policies better with national economic policies; and (c) how to ensure that the financial industry functions as a means and not as an end in itself?
Re-making Financial Policy to Meet Society’s Needs
By Yaga Venugopal Reddy
The financial sector has been hit by major crises and scandals, to the point that its credibility with the public has fallen to historically low levels. A re- thinking and re-making of financial policies and the role of financial institutions is thus urgently needed. This was the theme of a lecture presented by the distinguished former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Yaga Venugopal Reddy, which was made in conjuncture with the 2012 Annual General Meeting of the Bank for International Settlements held in Basel, Switzerland. The 2012 Per Jacobsson Foundation Lecture by Mr Reddy, made on 24 June 2012, covered three main themes: (1) Society and Finance, (2) Economic Policies and the Financial Sector, and (3) Regulation of the Financial Sector.
Below is the first part of the lecture, on Society and Finance. Future issues of SouthViews will publish the other two parts of the lecture.
The following is a speech made by Dr. Lim Mah-Hui on behalf of the South Centre at a Seminar on the 18th meeting of Afreximbank Advisory Group on Trade and Export Development in Africa, High-level Roundtable 1– Can Africa learn from China?, in Beijing on July 13. The seminar was held in conjunction with the 19th General Meeting of Shareholders of African Export-Import Bank.
The still-developing LIBOR scandal is the latest and biggest blow to the credibility of big banks and their regulators, and should catalyse broad-ranging reforms to the financial system.
The theory that developing countries have de-coupled from growth in advanced economies and can continue with high growth even during the global slowdown is not based on proper examination of facts. A South Centre paper challenges the concept of the inexorable rise of the South. This is a summary of the arguments.
Beyond ‘Patent Quality’: Basic Concepts of the Patent System Need To Be Reviewed
By Carlos M. Correa
A proposal has been made to initiate a debate on ‘patent quality’ at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The expression ‘patent quality’ ambiguously alludes to a growing problem, faced in both developed and developing countries alike: the overwhelming majority of patents are applied for and granted over incremental developments on existing technologies. Although the patent system is supposed to reward inventiveness, in many cases patents cover minor improvements or trivial ideas.
Equity is the Gateway to Environment Ambition: South Centre statement in UNFCCC
Below is the statement by Martin Khor, Executive Director of the South Centre, which was presented at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Ad-hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA) Workshop on Equity in Bonn on 16 May 2012.
Developing countries very vulnerable to global economic crisis, UN role is vital: South Centre speech at UN
By Yilmaz Akyüz
The world economy is as fragile today as in 2009. Developing countries are very vulnerable to a slowdown caused by the Eurozone crisis. There has been no global reforms and the G20 is ineffective. Thus the role of the UN on global economic issues is vital. These are highlights of the speech by the South Centre’s Chief Economist at the UN General Assembly High Level Thematic Debate on the State of the Global Economy in New York on 18 May.
Among the issues that caught the public imagination at the recent Rio+20 summit was the right of all people to good, nutritious food, and the need to support small farmers and promote ecologically sound agricultural methods. Martin Khor reports on the Sustainable Development Dialogue on Food Security.
Sustainable Development as an Answer to Economic and Financial Crises
Below is the speech delivered by Dr Yilmaz Akyüz, Chief Economist of the South Centre on the Sustainable Development Dialogue Roundtable on the Global Financial Crisis, UN Conference on Sustainable Development 2012, in Rio de Janeiro on 16 June 2012. (more…)
The Rio+20 summit from 13 to 22 June was disappointing to many, but it could still succeed through the mandated follow-up actions. The South Centre’s Executive Director gives an in-depth assessment.
Statutory Sovereign Debt Workout Mechanisms: Why And How?
The following paper by the South Centre (authored by its Chief Economist Yilmaz Akyuz ) was presented by the Centre’s Executive Director at the UN General Assembly special event on sovereign debt crises and restructurings, held in New York on 20 October 2012.
