The most prosperous of civilizations were the most open. The Romans, for example, expanded their empire by integrating the populations they conquered, creating a melting pot of new ideas. Johan Norberg’s latest book, Peak Human, examines the rise and fall of seven golden age civilizations. In this podcast, he says that if openness to learning and trade are what great societies make, building walls to protect their dominance often sparks their demise. Norberg is a historian and senior fellow at the Cato Institute.

Transcript: https://traffic.libsyn.com/imfpodcast/Johan_Norberg-transcript-IMF_Podcast.pdf

Read the article Finance & Development: IMF.org/fandd

There is strength in numbers, and the idea of European integration through a single market was to capitalize on the EU as a whole. However, the single market is a product of the early 90s, and EU member states now appear reticent to pool sovereignty to the degree required to counter the geopolitical challenges of today’s world. Enrico Letta is President of the Jacques Delors Institute and a champion of Delors’ vision of creating a fully integrated European economic space. Letta’s 2024 report, Much More than a Market, argues that adaptation of the single market should include all sectors rather than a select few and that fragmentation is holding Europe back.

Transcript: https://traffic.libsyn.com/imfpodcast/Enrico_Letta-transcript-IMF_Podcast.pdf