When I work with countries struggling to pay for budgets or finance trade deficits, I reflect on how Americans do not spend a moment considering the unique advantages of being able to issue bonds and print money freely.
Private sector development and the creation of small businesses spur investment, jobs, opportunity, and hope. It empowers the market to meet local needs, whether for food, basic goods, or services.
In London, Washington, and Paris people talk of bonuses or no bonuses. In parts of Africa, South Asia, and Latin America, the struggle is for food or no food.
Corruption is a cancer that steals from the poor, eats away at governance and moral fibre and destroys trust.
Don’t just analyze a problem – solve it.
It is vital that the World Bank Group continually challenges itself to refresh our development thinking. It is vital that a modernized multilateralism be open to new ideas.
One of the challenges for sub-Saharan Africa is that markets are of modest size. This makes regional integration important.
There are many roads to prosperity, but one must be taken. Inaction leads nowhere.
The world is only one poor harvest away from chaos. We are so close to the edge that politically destabilising food prices could come at any time.
The most effective executive branch officials try to help legislators develop explanations for the votes they are being asked to take.
All of us make mistakes. The key is to acknowledge them, learn, and move on. The real sin is ignoring mistakes, or worse, seeking to hide them.
In the US and Europe over the last year we’ve been focused on the prices of gasoline at the pump. While many worry about filling their gas tanks, many others around the world are struggling to fill their stomachs. And it’s getting more and more difficult every day.
Climate change policies cannot be the frosting on the cake of development; they must be baked into the recipe of growth and social development.