Press

This article by William White was  published on 20 December  in “The Market” a Swiss financial newspaper. It suggests that the global economy faces such a transition and that there will be, as a result, persistent upward pressure on prices and on interest rates. Similar  to suggestions made by Keynes in “How to pay for the war?”, governments must find ways to scale back unnecessary consumption to finance investments, both public and private, that now offer (think environmental) a very high social rate of return. Politically, this will not be easy.

https://themarket.ch/english/transitioning-from-an-era-of-plenty-to-an-era-of-shortages-ld.8077

A letter from William White was printed in the Financial Times on 2 December 20 2022. White wrote in support of an earlier article by Martin Wolf called “How to think about policy in a polycrisis”.  A number of interacting systems, each essential for human survival and progress, are currently and simultaneously under threat.  Policy solutions that focus on only one system, without thinking about the effects on other systems, could well prove counterproductive.

https://www.ft.com/content/0472dc81-2b47-46bb-9f07-fd747796e4bf

William White and Sunil Sharma coauthored an article that was posted by OMFIF on 21 April, 2022. They argue that we could be one serious economic crisis away from significant political turmoil that might threaten our democratic traditions. After decades of slow growth, stagnant real wages, and the many costs of covid, a restless public is increasingly inclined to see political structures as “rigged” and “unfair”.  We must cease relying on macroeconomic stimulus (especially monetary policy) to paper over structural problems, while inadvertently making them worse. Instead,  policymakers should address those structural issues more directly: not least, rising inequality, market concentration, environmental degradation and the need for debt restructuring.

https://www.omfif.org/2022/04/structural-reforms-required-to-safeguard-democratic-future/