Author: Maureen Heydt

Prudential Regulations for Greening the Financial System: Coping with Climate Disasters

Prudential financial regulators, central banks, and regulatory authorities have increasingly come to recognize that they have a role to play in dealing with climate change. This should not be surprising, considering the extent to which finance plays a role in the everyday life of any society. By the same token, small changes in financial regulation […]

From Mercury Stories to Sustainability Stories: A Discussion with Henrik Selin

By Maureen Heydt On Tuesday, Nov. 10, the Global Development Policy Center (GDP Center) hosted a webinar to launch the new book from Henrik Selin, “Mercury Stories: Understanding Sustainability through a Volatile Element,” co-authored with Noelle Eckley Selin. The book is an interdisciplinary analysis of human interactions with mercury through history that sheds light on […]

The Next WTO Director-General: No Easy Task

By Rachel Thrasher The decision on the next Director-General for the World Trade Organization (WTO) has been delayed as the United States refuses to approve the global consensus around Nigeria’s candidate, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Instead, the US insists on Yoo Myung-hee of South Korea. This deadlock is only the latest in two decades of paralysis experienced […]

How Chinese Loans Can Serve as Financial Bailouts

By James Sundquist Can countries wary of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) turn to China instead for a financial lifeline? According to new research presented as part of the Global China Research Colloquium, the answer is a conditional yes. Countries that can repay their loans in-kind with natural resources, or are blessed with strategic importance […]

Safety First: Expanding the Global Financial Safety Net in Response to COVID-19

In a new journal article published in Global Policy, Kevin P. Gallagher, William N, Kring, Haihong Gong, José Antonio Ocampo and Ulrich Volz explain how the protection of the Global Financial Safety Net (GFSN) – comprising the nations’ foreign reserves, central banks’ bilateral swap lines and financial resources of global financial institutions, particularly of the […]

Webinar Launch: Debt Relief for Green and Inclusive Recovery Report

Greening the Recovery in Time of Debt Distress A global debt crisis is looming. Even before COVID-19 swept the world, the International Monetary Fund deemed global public debt burden a high risk for the majority of developing countries – noting that half of the lower-income countries were ‘at high risk of or already in debt […]

Demonstrating China’s Global Power: Webinar Launch and Demonstration

By Maureen Heydt On Thursday, October 22, the Global Development Policy Center hosted a webinar launch event for the new interactive China’s Global Power (CGP) Database. The CGP Database is an interactive mapping of all overseas power plants financed through Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) and/or China’s two global policy banks, the China Development Bank […]

Embracing the Global Public Amid COVID-19: A Conversation with Joseph E. Stiglitz

By Jake Werner At first glance, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) seems to have learned a valuable lesson from the 2008 global economic crisis: austerity is a counterproductive response to a contracting economy. Yet, faced today with a much bigger crisis, the global financial system is preventing many countries from acting on this insight. In […]

Under Pressure: A Mercurial Musical Medley

By Henrik Selin Editor’s Note: Mercury Stories: Understanding Sustainability through a Volatile Element is available now through MIT Press. Join the GDP Center on Tuesday, Nov. 10th for an online presentation and discussion of the new book with Henrik Selin and Kevin P. Gallagher, Director of the Global Development Policy Center. Register now to attend. […]