{
  "title": "Healing the Fractures of the Global Economy",
  "publication": "IMF Blog, September 1, 2020",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2020/09/01/healing-the-fractures-of-the-global-economy",
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  "summary": "Publication date: September 1, 2020",
  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "Overview and context",
      "content": "- Publication date: September 1, 2020\n- Author: Gita Bhatt\n- Framing: The COVID-19 crisis is described as the most “unmeasurable of times,” making it hard to quantify high uncertainty and risk (quote attributed to the IMF’s Geoffrey Okamoto).\n- Central observation: The age of COVID-19 has exposed, widened, and created economic and social fractures across the global economy."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Key fault lines highlighted",
      "content": "- Disparities among workers:\n  - Young workers\n  - Female workers\n  - Least educated workers\n- Public systems and structural vulnerabilities:\n  - Frailties in public health systems\n  - Precariousness of work\n  - The digital divide\n- Fiscal pressures:\n  - Governments face higher spending needs and ballooning debts.\n- Social justice:\n  - The pandemic has brought to light the long simmering issue of racial injustice."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Major themes and proposed directions",
      "content": "- Calls for rethinking priorities and economic structure toward a future that is:\n  - More equitable\n  - More adaptable\n  - More sustainable\n  - More resilient\n- International cooperation:\n  - Ian Goldin: “The networked problems of our time are amenable to networked solutions,” arguing for cooperation among governments, civil society, and business.\n- Rewriting economic rules:\n  - Joseph Stiglitz: Advocates rewriting rules to protect workers and the environment; calls for greater global and national solidarity.\n- Debt challenges and remedies:\n  - Carmen Reinhart, Kenneth Rogoff, and others: Consider approaches to handle a coming wave of debt restructuring for the poorest countries.\n  - Kevin Watkins: Urges debt relief for the poorest countries, including converting debt liabilities into investments that protect children.\n- Role of technology, climate, and public health:\n  - Contributors focus on new technologies, climate, public health, and vaccine development as key areas for action.\n- Addressing racism within economics:\n  - The IMF’s Ratna Sahay and coauthors: Grapple with race and racism in the economics profession and emphasize that addressing biases begins at home."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Outlook and concluding sentiment",
      "content": "- Transformation possibility: The post-pandemic world will likely be transformed in important ways.\n- Conditional optimism: If the crisis prompts a radical reset with policies that invest in people and reflect a shared sense of human fate, the world can emerge more resilient.\n- Closing metaphor: Quotation of Leonard Cohen — “There’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”\n\nSource: Healing the Fractures of the Global Economy, September 1, 2020.\n\n---\n\n\n References\n\n- Gita Bhatt\n- writes the IMF’s Geoffrey Okamoto\n- racial injustice\n- This issue of Finance &Development\n- writes Ian Goldin\n- Joseph Stiglitz argues\n- Carmen Reinhart, Kenneth Rogoff, and others consider ways\n- Kevin Watkins urges debt relief\n- new technologies\n- climate\n- public health\n- vaccine development\n- race and racism in the economics profession\n- shared sense of our fate\n\nSource: https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2020/09/01/healing-the-fractures-of-the-global-economy"
    }
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    "Authors: converting debt liabilities into investments that protect children. Other contributors focus on the role of",
    "Published: September 1, 2020",
    "Publication date: September 1, 2020",
    "Author: Gita Bhatt",
    "Framing: The COVID-19 crisis is described as the most “unmeasurable of times,” making it hard to quantify high uncertainty and risk (quote attributed to the IMF’s Geoffrey Okamoto).",
    "Central observation: The age of COVID-19 has exposed, widened, and created economic and social fractures across the global economy.",
    "Disparities among workers:",
    "Public systems and structural vulnerabilities:",
    "Fiscal pressures:",
    "Social justice:",
    "Calls for rethinking priorities and economic structure toward a future that is:",
    "International cooperation:",
    "Rewriting economic rules:",
    "Debt challenges and remedies:",
    "Role of technology, climate, and public health:",
    "Addressing racism within economics:",
    "Transformation possibility: The post-pandemic world will likely be transformed in important ways.",
    "Conditional optimism: If the crisis prompts a radical reset with policies that invest in people and reflect a shared sense of human fate, the world can emerge more resilient.",
    "Closing metaphor: Quotation of Leonard Cohen — “There’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”",
    "[Gita Bhatt](https://blogs.imf.org/bloggers/gita-bhatt/)",
    "[writes the IMF’s Geoffrey Okamoto](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2020/09/balancing-risk-and-resilience-geoffrey-okamoto.htm)",
    "[racial injustice](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2020/09/the-economic-cost-of-racism-losavio.htm)",
    "[This issue of Finance &Development](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2020/09/index.htm)",
    "[writes Ian Goldin](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2020/09/rethinking-global-resilience-ian-goldin.htm)",
    "[Joseph Stiglitz argues](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2020/09/COVID19-and-global-inequality-joseph-stiglitz.htm)",
    "[Carmen Reinhart, Kenneth Rogoff, and others consider ways](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2020/09/debt-pandemic-reinhart-rogoff-bulow-trebesch.htm)",
    "[Kevin Watkins urges debt relief](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2020/09/debt-relief-for-the-poorest-kevin-watkins.htm)",
    "[new technologies](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2020/09/technology-resilience-and-inequality-adriano.htm)",
    "[climate](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2020/09/investing-in-a-green-recovery-volz.htm)",
    "[public health](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2020/09/overhauling-health-systems-fernandes.htm)",
    "[vaccine development](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2020/09/vaccine-finance-epidemics-and-prevention-bloom.htm)",
    "[race and racism in the economics profession](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2020/09/race-and-racism-in-economics-IMF.htm)",
    "[shared sense of our fate](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2020/09/cultivating-global-financial-cooperation-eichengreen.htm)"
  ],
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