Down But Not Out

IMF Blog, March 2, 2015

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Title: Down But Not Out
Author: Jeff Hayden
Date: March 2, 2015
Context: Issue of Finance & Development focused on the future of work and the global jobs landscape following the Great Recession and the global financial crisis of 2008-2009.

Inspired by Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry murals at the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Rivera was commissioned in 1932 to paint the 27-panel visual epic as a tribute to the city’s assembly-line workers, scientists, doctors, secretaries, and laborers.
The mural format and public-art initiatives (for example, artists supported by government agencies such as the Works Progress Administration) celebrated workers and reflected the New Deal goal of getting Americans back to work.
The F&D cover (painted by American artist Richard Downs) aims to pay tribute to contemporary workers affected by the Great Recession of 2008 and to depict forces shaping the jobs landscape in 2015 and beyond: technology, immigration, trade, and education.

Global jobs overview and slow jobs recovery:
- IMF economist Prakash Loungani leads off with an overview of the global jobs landscape and examines reasons behind the slow recovery of jobs in the wake of the global financial crisis.
Regional and thematic examinations:
- Jobs forecast for sub-Saharan Africa: Bruce Edwards.
- Immigration and labor: Çağlar Özden.
- Technology and work: James Bessen.
- Labor market trends: Ekkehard Ernst.
- Unemployment in the euro area: Angana Banerji.
Labor power, inequality, and policy perspectives:
- Sharan Burrow (ITUC head) argues for a jobs- and wage-led global recovery.
- IMF researchers Florence Jaumotte and Carolina Osorio Buitron probe the relationship between declining trade union membership and inequality.

Fiscal policy and historical perspective:
- Vitor Gaspar (IMF Fiscal Affairs chief) in a Straight Talk column on fiscal policy and power politics drawing lessons from King Phillip II of Spain.
Monetary system critique:
- William White explains shortcomings of the international monetary system.
Additional coverage:
- Pitfalls of growth forecasts and tax informality.
- Profile of Raghuram Rajan by Laura Wallace, former editor-in-chief of F&D, on Rajan’s role as head of India’s central bank at a pivotal time for India and the global economy.

Source: Down But Not Out — Jeff Hayden, March 2, 2015.