China as an emerging country
Christine Lagarde, the new - French again - head of the IMF, who belongs to the French conservative party (contrarily to Dominique Strauss-Kahn), created a new, third, position of director in order to, she says (Le Monde, July 14, 2011), make a greater room for "emerging countries".
What country are you thinking of? Angola? Laos? Nepal? Burkina Faso?
What does it mean to be an "emerging country"? There are formal definitions for this, probably something related to a country which economy plays a role in the world economy since only recently. In that sense, countries like Angola, Laos, Nepal, Burkina Faso, Bangladesh etc. are not emergent countries at all.
Yet the meaning intuitively grasped by the public is rather that of a "poor country" or a so-called "developing country". No one speaks about "poor countries": it's a long time official politics has political-correct expressions for everything linked to undesirable effects (colateral damage, visually challenged, developing countries...). An effect of this is that there is an automatic biais that has installed in the understanding of such expressions, which in turn makes "emergent country" feel like "under-developed country".
Christine Lagarde's communication might mean that she wants a *formally speaking* "emergent country" to participate to the life of world finance. But the effect on the public is very nice, giving the impression that poorer countries are at last cared for.
But the reality is quite different: the "emergent country" in question is China, a country which buys the sold docks of Pireas, which builds roads in Africa to extract oil there, and which owns about 1000 billion dollars in treasury bonds.
In fact, one shouldn't read "emergent countries" but "emergent markets". China was a key support for Christine Lagarde's nomination at the head of the IMF, probably a better interlocutor for some than was Dominique Strauss-Kahn who is not (officially) a conservative.
Christine Lagarde recently put pressure on the Obama administration in the name of the IMF so that the US dept roof is raised. It's hard to see if the strategy here converges with that of Republicans, but it might well: the Republicans think probably that in case there is a default of the US, the people will think - by a cognitive shortcut - Obama and the Democrats are to blame. This strategy, if it exists, might well fail in the end: the Republicans might appear more interested in supporting their rigid ideology of decreasing the State's expenses, and private interests, rather than the collective interest of the country (see the politico website for an interesting development).
There are deep roots to the conservative - progressive opposition. They are very much about the notion of civilization. But we'll talk about this later.
What country are you thinking of? Angola? Laos? Nepal? Burkina Faso?
What does it mean to be an "emerging country"? There are formal definitions for this, probably something related to a country which economy plays a role in the world economy since only recently. In that sense, countries like Angola, Laos, Nepal, Burkina Faso, Bangladesh etc. are not emergent countries at all.
Yet the meaning intuitively grasped by the public is rather that of a "poor country" or a so-called "developing country". No one speaks about "poor countries": it's a long time official politics has political-correct expressions for everything linked to undesirable effects (colateral damage, visually challenged, developing countries...). An effect of this is that there is an automatic biais that has installed in the understanding of such expressions, which in turn makes "emergent country" feel like "under-developed country".
Christine Lagarde's communication might mean that she wants a *formally speaking* "emergent country" to participate to the life of world finance. But the effect on the public is very nice, giving the impression that poorer countries are at last cared for.
But the reality is quite different: the "emergent country" in question is China, a country which buys the sold docks of Pireas, which builds roads in Africa to extract oil there, and which owns about 1000 billion dollars in treasury bonds.
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| The future tallest building of the world in Shanghai |
In fact, one shouldn't read "emergent countries" but "emergent markets". China was a key support for Christine Lagarde's nomination at the head of the IMF, probably a better interlocutor for some than was Dominique Strauss-Kahn who is not (officially) a conservative.
Christine Lagarde recently put pressure on the Obama administration in the name of the IMF so that the US dept roof is raised. It's hard to see if the strategy here converges with that of Republicans, but it might well: the Republicans think probably that in case there is a default of the US, the people will think - by a cognitive shortcut - Obama and the Democrats are to blame. This strategy, if it exists, might well fail in the end: the Republicans might appear more interested in supporting their rigid ideology of decreasing the State's expenses, and private interests, rather than the collective interest of the country (see the politico website for an interesting development).
There are deep roots to the conservative - progressive opposition. They are very much about the notion of civilization. But we'll talk about this later.
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