Articles by author
Climate-related disasters, why insurance is not the solution and what is
We are in the Age of Climate Superlatives: all seven continents have experienced rolling record temperatures and floods, unprecedented glacier retreats, massive forest fires and more. The consequences have been expensive in terms of lives, livelihoods, economic losses and disruption. In 2024 alone, tropical cyclones caused over $100bn in financial loss and damage and hundreds of lives in the Caribbean, southern United States, and southwest Asia. Floods in China, Brazil, Spain, Germany and across Africa cost about half of that and also killed hundreds. Multi-year droughts across sub-Saharan Africa and Central America claimed even more lives and lost livelihoods. A knee-jerk response has been that we need more insurance or insurance instruments like “cat-bonds” and regional risk pools for these climate disasters. This response is understandable but mainly wrong, as I explain below. We need alternative approaches and emerging instruments.
6 FEB 2025Re-imagining safe assets
In this Spotlight article, Avinash Persaud asks why, in response to the pandemic, the bulk of the fiscal and monetary stimulus was in countries that issue international safe assets. He suggests two approaches that would enable others to issue international safe assets and a new type of safe asset that could help mend our planet.
1 FEB 2022Lessons from the SVB collapse for banking regulation
In this article Avinash Persaud considers the more immediate and the lasting lessons from the recent bank crisis.
1 JUN 2023The bubbling emerging market crisis and what the world should do about it
A silent wave of financial stress is running through world financial markets. The proximate cause of the crisis is the combination of COVID-debt and a jump in the US dollar. Fighting the dollar’s appreciation with higher interest rates on debt will push the world into crisis and recession. To forestall the worst, the IMF Board must immediately: – increase access to its unconditional rapid financing facilities; – increase access to its unconditional rapid financing facilities; – temporarily suspend interest rate surcharges; – fulfil their commitment to rechannel to developing countries at least $100bn of its recently issued special drawing rights (SDRs) that give holders automatic access to liquidity; and – agree to a new $650bn SDR allocation. Delay will spread social and economic collapse that will reverberate worldwide. Let us not be quick to save banks but slow to save countries.
1 DEC 2022
