International Monetary Fund :"F&D Magazine: A Moving History"

 

A Moving History JUNE 2025  (Credit: Getty Images/Mirrorpix) The history of migration is the story of humanity and its progress. It’s a story of peaceful cooperation and exchange, but also of violence. Terrible things have been done to compel people to migrate against their will. Yet despite the suffering, migration remains the key to the success of our species, Oxford University’s Ian Goldin writes in F&D.   In the United States today, immigrants account for a disproportionately large share of intellectual leadership, from Nobel laureates and Oscar-winning directors to founders of unicorn start-ups valued at more than $1 billion. Immigrants to the United Kingdom make up a third of authors awarded the Booker Prize.   The effects on the countries migrants leave behind are equally important. Migrants send home over $1 trillion a year in remittances, exceeding aid and investment flows combined for many developing economies, and they often return with new skills and investment. Entrepreneurs who spent time abroad have created some of the most successful emerging market start-ups.   “People on the move carried with them vestiges of old lands and past lives,” Goldin writes. “As they ventured farther from their homes, they encountered previous settlers who had accumulated different habits, technologies, and economic activities. They traded goods and shared ideas, like pollinators of human progress.” Read more Point of View (Credit: Chantal Jahchan) Reclaiming a Policy Role for Economists | Acknowledging missteps, listening well, defending data, and avoiding jargon will help the profession engage | Karen Dynan   Europe’s Future Hinges on Greater Unity | But first the EU must overcome distrust between its member states and in its institutions | Simon Nixon   We Need a New Growth Compact| Innovation and integration can revive growth amid sweeping geopolitical change | Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas Europe: From Adversity to Advantage (Credit: Brian Stauffer) Europe’s Integration Imperative | The case for closer economic union has become more compelling as external challenges multiply | Alfred Kammer   Europe’s Elusive Savings and Investment Union | An integrated capital market must be accompanied by regulatory reforms to attract substantial investment | Ravi Balakrishnan and Mahmood Pradhan   Europe’s Innovators Are Waking Up| The continent’s innovation success stories and renewed sense of purpose defy criticism of overregulation | Alessandro Merli   Making Germany Grow Again| Long-term, future-focused investment can rescue Europe’s largest economy from stagnation | Ulrike Malmendier and Claudia Schaffranka   Plus, government ministers from three of Europe’s fastest-growing economies share their perspectives on how to revive growth:   Europe’s Economic Revival | Poland’s economic transformation can inspire Europe today | Andrzej Domański   Greece’s Remarkable Recovery | Strong reforms have turned it into one of Europe’s fastest-growing economies | Konstantinos Hatzidakis   Spain’s Shift to Success | Our balanced and sustainable growth is overcoming traditional dilemmas | Carlos Cuerpo “The European Union must unite to shape today’s global economy, rather than be shaped by it.”— F&D editor-in-chief Gita Bhatt Read more Also Featured (Credit: Hadley Hooper) The Debate over Falling Fertility | A decline in global population later this century may threaten human progress, or it may lead to better lives | David E. Bloom, Michael Kuhn, and Klaus Prettner   The Longevity Dividend | Aging populations should be embraced, not feared | Andrew Scott and Peter Piot   Sustaining Growth in an Aging World | Older populations need not lead to slumping economic growth and mounting fiscal pressures | Bertrand Gruss and Diaa Noureldin   Machine Intelligence and Human Judgment | AI could reverse the widening inequality driven by technology, or aggravate it | Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb   Stanley Fischer (1944–2025)| His storied career at the IMF, at central banks, and at universities shaped the study of macroeconomics and the next generation of macroeconomists | James Boughton Our Regular Departments (Credit: Courtesy Monetary Authority of Macao) For Currency Notes, Salsa Mazlan tells how Macao SAR’s unique history has yielded different yet equally elegant versions of the same banknote.   Simon Johnson discusses technology, inequality, and democracy with Bruce Edwards for Café Economics.    Picture This shows how stalled trade and rising tariffs are testing global economic resilience.   Andreas Adriano profiles Agustín Carstens, finance minister, head of the BIS, and central banker with a start-up mentality, for People in Economics.   Kevin Fletcher explains why productivity, not competitiveness, is the better path to prosperity for Back to Basics.   For books, Mouhamadou Sy reviews Our Dollar, Your Problem: An Insider’s View of Seven Turbulent Decades of Global Finance, and the Road Ahead by Kenneth Rogoff.   Volker Wieland reviews Crisis Cycle: Challenges, Evolution, and Future of the Euro by John H. Cochrane, Luis Garicano, and Klaus Masuch.   And Vivek Arora reviews Entropy Economics: The Living Basis of Value and Production by James K. Galbraith and Jing Chen.   Nick Owen  Managing Editor | Finance & Development   nowen@IMF.org Stay connected with the International Monetary Fund: