Macroeconomics Stability and Financial Regulation: Key Issues for the G20

The G20 meeting in London in spring 2009 was a historical moment of global cooperation to deal with the global financial crisis. This book collects essays from leading economists, first presented as an eBook in January 2009, advocating many of the policies that were eventually agreed on, including the headline-grabbing global fiscal stimulus. But it goes further, calling for:

• Reforms to address global imbalances by a) creating insurance mechanisms for countries that forgo reserve accumulation and stimulate domestic expansion; and b) accelerating the development of financial systems in emerging markets.

• Macroeconomic policy to meet any threat of deflation promptly, with a zero interest rate policy and quantitative easing, and an inflation target to avoid expectations of deflation.

• Adjustment of the Basel II capital requirements to mitigate procyclicality.

• Creation of a centralised clearing counterparty for credit default swap trades.

• Severing the link between credit rating agencies and issuers and monitoring the former’s power.

• Establishment of a harmonised bankruptcy regime for banks that gives regulators strong powers over bank managers and shareholders before the bank is technically insolvent, especially in the case of cross-border banks.

• Creation of an International Financial Stability Fund that takes equity positions in the financial institutions of participating countries and monitors their activities.

Many of these suggestions are still being debated today.

Work is a defining, all-consuming part of our lives. Now, more than ever, the speed at which the nature of work is changing is having an extraordinary impact on working lives everywhere.

The Shift is Lynda Gratton‘s groundbreaking book which looks at the five forces that will fundamentally change the way we work in the next ten to fifteen years: globalisation, society, demography, technology and energy.

It remains to be seen whether this will be a bad thing or a good thing. The invaluable advice that Lynda imparts, however, is that there are three key shifts that you as an individual can look to make to prepare yourself best in this fast-moving world of work…

Esteemed by The Economist for ‘leading the world’s top 200 business minds to predict the future of work’, Lynda Gratton is the most sought-after name in this area. She has been hailed by The Times as one of the top 20 business thinkers in the world today and by The Financial Times as the business thinker most likely to make a real difference over the next decade.