BWC Blog

Global Economy in 2023, Outlook for 2024

2023 has recently concluded — leaving behind economic behavior of households and companies that have adapted to the highest nominal financing costs since the early 2000s.  

Global platforms to tackle global environmental challenges

One of the key themes in the COP28 conference in Dubai held this year is the creation of new mechanisms and platforms for financing environmental projects to counter climate change. Thus far it has mostly been about ad hoc efforts of countries to produce additional funds and contributions to the environmental cause.

AI Could Breathe New Life Into Core Systems

The new kid on the block, AI, meets the original gangster, COBOL. Is it magic or is it a miss? COBOL, the Common Business-Oriented Language, is still very much an integral part of how data is stored and used by some of the institutions we trust deeply such as banks, insurers, healthcare providers, and governments. One would think that moving away from COBOL in our hyper connected and technologically advanced world would be easy.

Multilateral Development Banks Need to Play a Bigger Role in Closing the Climate Finance Gap

Read the Climate and Energy Transition Finance Team's Latest Brief Here.

How a new climate accelerator in the World Bank can help

The World Bank & AI: Leveraging AI to Accelerate Global Investments for Economic Development and Climate Finance

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the core of the future of the global capital markets. The World Bank can capitalize on it by leaning in from a governance and operational standpoint to leverage AI to accelerate investments for emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs).

US Treasury’s IMF Worldview:  Multilateralism, More Macroeconomics, Domestic Realities

19th St. and the rest of the world may not be fully pleased*

Decarbonizing Energy — with Speed, Wisdom and Balance

The following blog post is in reference to the piece, "The Elephant in the Room; Preaching or Working on Climate Change" by Miguel Schloss published in the Global Journal of Science Frontier Research.

The Fed’s New Dollar Token Policy, and Why It Matters

A version of these remarks was delivered at the 5th Annual Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Summit held in Cambridge, UK on 7 September 2023 as part of the panel presentation: “The Future of Money – Stablecoins v. Central Bank Digital Currencies”

De-dollarization or Re-Dollarization? The Fate of the Dollar in the Internet Age

The U.S. dollar, or greenback, is a ubiquitous, nearly universally accepted global currency. Like
the country that backs it, the dollar is endowed with special superpowers that are equal
measure historical flukes, as they are a byproduct of steady hands, institutional trust, network
effects and, the quiet part, military might. Just as the U.S. mainland is protected by two oceans,
the U.S. dollar is buttressed by both natural and historical advantages. The natural ones are

Towards a New Era of World Bank-Civil Society Partnership

Ajay Banga takes the helm of the World Bank at a singularly important time in determining the institution’s contributions to economic development. 

This is a time of severe economic/international debt distress for many developing countries, with higher levels of absolute poverty than have been seen in many years; a time of mounting public concern about climate change; and a time when authoritarian governments control nations that account for more than one-half of the world’s population.