Economies grow better when they are more equal, and taxation is a powerful tool to help reduce inequalities. But increasingly, the international tax system is doing the opposite of that by allowing corporations and the world's wealthiest people to avoid paying their fair share. The Tax Justice Network estimates the combined global revenue losses from cross-border tax abuse by people with undeclared offshore assets and of multinational companies amount to some $483 billion a year. Alex Cobham is Chief Executive of the Tax Justice Network, and in this podcast, he speaks with journalist Rhoda Metcalfe about his article Taxing for a New Social Contract in Finance and Development. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3sG6rMI

Read the article at IMF.org/fandd

Fragility and conflict have forced hundreds of millions of people to live outside of state control without access to basic services. And with violent conflict on the rise, two-thirds of the world's poorest could soon be living in fragile and conflict affected states. The International Committee of the Red Cross is one of the world's most important providers of humanitarian assistance and works at the front line of most conflicts across the globe. In this podcast, ICRC President, Peter Maurer discusses the importance of including the expertise of economists in their humanitarian work and the significance of the IMF's new strategy to strengthen its support to fragile and conflict affected states.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3P8coMh

Becoming an economist in the 1970s- for a woman, was a lonely road. When Clair Brown joined the Department of Economics at UC Berkeley in 1974 alongside people like Nobel laureate George Akerlof, she was the only female faculty member. But thanks to Brown's prodding, the department hired more women and Berkeley has since become well known for its female economists. Brown has always seen the power of diversity in her work. In 2013 she helped create a new graduate program called Development Engineering that teams engineers with economists to develop technologies that benefit developing regions. Today, she's advocating for a new, more sustainable approach to economic thinking in her book, Buddhist Economics. Journalist, Rhoda Metcalfe spoke with Clair Brown for our special series on extraordinary Women in Economics.                                Transcript: https://bit.ly/388DzG3

Book: http://buddhisteconomics.net/

La reprise économique en Afrique subsaharienne a surpris à la hausse au second semestre 2021, mais ces progrès ont été compromis cette année par l'invasion russe de l'Ukraine. La guerre a déclenché un choc économique mondial qui frappe la région à un moment où la capacité de réaction des pays est minime, voire inexistante. Papa N'Diaye dirige l'équipe qui produit les Perspectives économiques régionales pour l'Afrique subsaharienne. Dans ce podcast, il affirme que la croissance a de nouveau ralenti et ne suffira pas à rattraper le terrain perdu.

The economic recovery in sub-Saharan Africa surprised on the upside in the second half of 2021, but that progress has been jeopardized this year by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The war has triggered a global economic shock that is hitting the region at a time when countries’ ability to respond is minimal to nonexistent. Papa N’Diaye leads the team that produces the Regional Economic Outlook for sub-Saharan Africa. In this podcast, he says growth has slowed once again and will not be enough to make up for lost ground.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3OIo6N8

Read the report at IMF.org

The war in Ukraine has sparked one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times. So, can Europe afford to accommodate the millions of people coming across its borders? Giovanni Peri says while a crisis of this scale will imply significant upfront costs, the European Union is doing right by investing in the human capital of refugees. Peri heads the Global Migration Center at UC Davis, and in this podcast, he says Ukrainian migrants are an opportunity for many European countries that are experiencing aging populations and labor shortages.  Transcript: https://bit.ly/3jY7cMn

While financial stability risks have risen on several fronts since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the latest Global Financial Stability Report (GFSR) says no global systemic event affecting financial institutions or markets has materialized so far. Fabio Natalucci heads the GFSR as well as IMF Global Financial Markets Monitoring. In this podcast, he says stronger banking systems, higher capital and higher liquidity have helped to absorb the shock, but an intensification of the war could further test the resilience of the global financial system. Transcript: https://bit.ly/36qyl7D

Read the full report at IMF.org/GFSR

Read the blog at blogs.imf.org

Just as many countries were beginning to feel the grip of the pandemic start to ease, another global calamity is threatening the recovery. In her customary curtain-raiser speech to the IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said the war in Ukraine has disrupted millions of lives and many aspects of the global economy.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3KJjeFt

Go to IMF.org to follow the Spring Meetings and find all the IMF flagship reports, including the World Economic Outlook, the Global Financial Stability Report, and the Fiscal Monitor.

Most people and virtually all businesses now use electronic money for their transactions, yet central banks are still dealing with what's known among economists as the paper currency problem, which limits central banks' ability to use deep negative rates to fight recessions. In this second episode of a two-part series on inflation, economists Miles Kimball and Ruchir Agarwal discuss how fully committing to an electronic money standard would allow central banks to break the zero lower bound associated with paper currency and help them to fight both inflation and recessions more effectively, including by lowering the inflation target.  Transcript: https://bit.ly/3vncUwW

Miles Kimball is a professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Ruchir Agarwal is a senior economist in the IMF Research Department.

This podcast series is based on their inflation trilogy published in Finance and Development. Read the articles at IMF.org/fandd

Everyone feels the pinch when inflation is on the rise and so the pressure on central banks to manage inflation rates has grown exponentially in recent weeks. In this first podcast of a two-part series on inflation, distinguished economists Miles Kimball and Ruchir Agarwal discuss how a robust negative interest rate policy can help central banks better control inflation and stabilize the economy. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3xlHFEK

Miles Kimball is a professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Ruchir Agarwal is a senior economist in the IMF Research Department.

This podcast series is based on their inflation trilogy published in Finance and Development. Read the article at IMF.org/fandd

The pandemic has sparked an enormous upheaval in education around the world. But in India and many other low-income countries where remote learning is often not an option, children's education has simply fallen off the rails. Yamini Aiyar is President of the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi. In this podcast, Aiyar speaks with journalist Rhoda Metcalfe about how the digital divide has pushed poor kids into an educational deficit that could reverberate for years.  

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3NBfWpk

Yamini Aiyar is also the author of The Education Pandemic published in Finance and Development.

Read more about bridging learning gaps amongst children here

The last two years have proven a test for the global financial system, and the nature of the crises is getting more complex by the day. In this podcast, Foreign Policy magazine's Ravi Agrawal asks the IMF's two top leaders how governments should respond to the growing number of challenges facing the global economy. Transcript: https://bit.ly/382IPKX

Watch the webcast at https://foreignpolicy.com/events/

Governments with strong balance sheets are known to recover from shocks more quickly. Yet many of them don't have balance sheets, or even know what assets and liabilities they have. The IMF estimates these often-overlooked global public assets at twice the value of global GDP. Ian Ball is a professor at Victoria University in Wellington and behind the New Zealand government’s net worth approach to determining its fiscal position. Ball published an article in Finance and Development about the benefits of digging up all government assets, hidden or otherwise. In this podcast, he sits down with journalist Rhoda Metcalfe to discuss the advantages of this basic accounting exercise that dates back to the time of William the Conqueror.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3CViKsI

Read the article at IMF.org/fandd

As the world this week celebrates International Women's Day, hundreds of millions of women are living in conflict and fragility. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva joined a special United Nations Security Council meeting to discuss women's economic inclusion as a key to building peace. In this podcast, Georgieva says women and girls are themselves powerful agents of change and gender equality can prevent conflict and foster stability. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3CuYcXA

In this episode of Women in Economics, economist Laura Carvalho speaks with journalist Rhoda Metcalfe about how growing up in Brazil in the 90s during its currency swings and hyperinflation drove her to become one of the country's most influential economists. Carvalho is a Professor at the Department of Economics at the University of Sao Paulo and the Director of the Research Center in Macroeconomics of Inequality. Her book, Brazilian Waltz - From Boom to Economic Chaos, was a best seller. Carvalho says Brazilians who understood basic economic principles fared better through the economic turbulence of that time.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3pN26pC

Should the rich pay more taxes than the poor? Economists and public finance practitioners have traditionally focused on economic efficiency when answering questions like that, steering clear of any moral considerations that could be seen as subjective. But recent work by evolutionary moral psychologists suggests that a more human approach to policy decisions can lead to better policies that muster broader support. Paolo Mauro is Deputy Director in the IMF Fiscal Affairs Department. In this podcast, he says considering people's moral perspectives makes policy choices more politically feasible and sustainable. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3hudH8M

As part of the IMF Exchange speaker series, London School of Economics Director, Minouche Shafik and IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva discuss how current economic trends are straining social safety nets and fueling disaffection among people across the globe. In her latest book What We Owe Each Other, Shafik argues the need for a new social contract. The discussion is moderated by CNN Anchor and Correspondent Eleni Giokos. The podcast is an abridged version of the conversation, you'll find a webcast of the entire event at IMF.org.

When was the last time you used cash? In his latest book, Eswar Prasad looks at a world, not that far off, where using cash will no longer be an option. Prasad is a professor of economics at Cornell University, and his book, The Future of Money, describes how digital currencies and other financial technologies are reshaping everything from consumer banking to monetary policy and international payments. In this podcast, he discusses the book with Finance and Development Magazine editor Chris Wellisz.  Transcript: https://bit.ly/3gwQJNu

Read the F&D article at IMF.org/fandd

When the pandemic hit two years ago, millions of people quickly found themselves unable to work because of the nature of their jobs or because of the recession that ensued. But now, as economies are picking up- why are companies having such a hard time hiring workers? In this podcast, journalist Rhoda Metcalfe asks economists Carlo Pizzinelli and Ippei Shibata what's behind the labor shortage in many advanced economies. Shibata and Pizzinelli's latest research looks at current trends in the US and UK and suggests there are many pieces to the labor market puzzle.  Transcript: https://bit.ly/3rnmmzk

Read the blog at blogs.imf.org

Fragile and conflict-affected states are home to nearly 1 billion people and confront some of the greatest challenges among the world’s economies. 220 million people live within 40 miles from a major conflict event and 155 million globally are acutely food insecure. Franck Bousquet is the deputy director, coordinating the Fund's work in fragile and conflict-affected states. In this podcast, Bousquet talks about the growing costs associated with fragility and conflict, and how the IMF is trying to help. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3GcReGZ

Read the blog at blogs.imf.org

Spending public funds efficiently and effectively is a challenge for governments around the world, but weak public finance management systems are holding back growth and development in Africa. Ken Opalo studies African legislatures and policymaking at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. In this podcast, Opalo says public spending does not adequately reflect taxpayers' priorities in many African countries because elected officials are often left out of the budget process.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3K0Sq3r

Much has been said and written about the dangers of government borrowing. In their new book, In Defense of Public Debt, economic historian Barry Eichengreen and his co-authors trace the evolution of sovereign debt from the wars of medieval Europe through the Covid-19 crisis, illustrating public debt's many positive uses, from reacting to financial crises to building public works. In this podcast, Eichengreen discusses the book with Finance and Development Magazine’s Chris Wellisz. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3ec6Hvj

While the world has been focused on the pandemic for the past two years, the rapid rise of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias pose another threat to global public health. Nathaniel Counts is Senior VP for Behavioral Health Innovation at Mental Health America and Assistant Professor at Albert Einstein's School of Medicine. In this podcast, Counts says dementia will vastly increase across the globe as the population age rises with increasing life expectancy and have profound impacts on welfare and economic growth, especially in low- and middle-income countries.  Transcript: https://bit.ly/32cwKQc

Read the F&D article at IMF.org/fandd

Despite all the money and health infrastructure available to them, some of the world's richest countries have suffered higher death rates from COVID-19 than many developing countries. Jay Patel is a researcher at the Global Health Governance Program at the University of Edinburgh and has coauthored along with colleague Devi Sridhar an article about pandemic preparedness in the December issue of Finance and Development. In this podcast, Patel tells journalist Rhoda Metcalfe that regardless of their limited resources, many developing countries in Africa delivered effective containment strategies because of strong local leadership and knowledge sharing.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/33hY0xx

Read the article at IMF.org/fandd.

Pandemics pose significant macroeconomic costs but only recently have garnered the attention they deserve. In this podcast, economist Ruchir Agarwal, sits down with Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, to discuss the role of macroeconomics in public health preparedness. Agarwal heads the IMF's Global Health and Pandemic Response Taskforce. Transcript: https://bit.ly/32KapKk

Read the F&D article at IMF.org/fandd