IMF latest news

JUST LAUNCHED: JUNE 2018 ISSUE

The Long and Short of the Digital RevolutionSmart policies can alleviate the short-term pain of technical disruption Martin Mühleisen Going CashlessThe governor of the world’s oldest central bank discusses his country’s shift toward digital moneyStefan Ingves Monetary Policy in the Digital AgeCrypto assets may one day reduce demand for central bank moneyDong He A Regulatory Approach to FintechWe must guard against emerging risks without stifling innovationChristine Lagarde What Are Cryptocurrencies?A potential new form of money offers benefits while posing risksAntoine Bouveret and Vikram Haksar Lucre’s AllureThroughout time, new currency has been associated with mystical qualities, and Bitcoin is no exceptionHarold James A Short History of Crypto EuphoriaAn eminent economist’s taxonomy of bubbles is applied to the latest financial fadAndreas Adriano The Industrialization of CybercrimeLone-wolf hackers yield to mature businessesTamas Gaidosch Land of the Rising RobotsJapan’s combination of artificial intelligence and robotics may be the answer to its rapidly shrinking labor forceTodd Schneider, Gee Hee Hong, and Anh Van Le ALSO IN THIS ISSUE Piercing the VeilSome $12 trillion worldwide is just phantom corporate investmentJannick Damgaard, Thomas Elkjaer, and Niels Johannesen  Sherlock of TradeBruce Edwards profiles John Bates Clark Medal winner David Donaldson

READ THE FULL ISSUE

Most Read Blogs in May

---

Volatility Strikes Back

The bouts of volatility in early February and late March that spooked investors were confined to equity markets. Nevertheless, they illustrate the potential for sudden market moves to expose fragilities in the financial system more broadly. All this could lead to a period of renewed volatility.

---

Technology and the Future of Work

Many feel anxious about the impact of new technology on their jobs. This is not new. In fact, it dates back at least to the Luddites movement at the outset of the Industrial Revolution. And it resurfaced during the Great Depression and again in the 1960s, following a period of high productivity growth, and in the 1980s at the outset of the IT revolution. How can governments help? By investing in peoples’ skills

---

Creating a Better Global Trade System

Recent news on global trade has tended to focus on protectionist measures and diplomatic tensions. These challenges have raised concerns over growth and jobs across the world.Yet what is often lost in the current discussions is that we are entering a new era of trade—an era in which data flows are becoming more important than physical trade.

---

Trust and the Future of Multilateralism

We live in an era of doubts and questions about the global order. We have seen an erosion of trust in bedrock institutions—political parties, national governments, regional authorities, and among international trade and investment partners. We often throw around the word trust rather loosely. Where trust exists and is reciprocated—where there is “confidence” in policies, institutions and systems—economies will achieve more.

---

Latin America and the Caribbean in 2018: An Economic Recovery in the Making

Recent trends in the world economy and financial markets are good news for Latin America. Global growth and trade are on an upswing, and we expect the momentum to continue in 2018. Stronger commodity prices have also helped the region rebound. Benefiting from these better global conditions, Latin America’s economic recovery is gaining momentum too, as recessions in a few countries come to an end (Brazil, Argentina, and Ecuador). Chart of the Week: Distribution of Globalization’s Gains 05/31/2018 09:20 AM EDT While globalization is generally good for economic growth, the benefits are subject to diminishing marginal returns, according to a recent study of 147 countries from 1970 to 2014. The study looks at how globalization affects the distribution of incomes across and within countries. The IMF Working Paper The Distribution of Gains from Globalization, by Marina Mendes Tavares and Valentin F. Lang, reveals that in rich economies, globalization still represents a source of economic growth, but the expected gains are lower than in poor and emerging market economies, where globalization increases economic well-being and reduces poverty.