TUTTI I COMPAGNI DI MERENDE DI MARIO DRAGHI

 

Consultative Group on International Economic and Monetary Affairs, Inc.

Contact Us

• About
• Members
• Work Program
• Publications
• Events
• Resources

• Current
• Past

Search

Current Members

Leadership

Jacob A. Frenkel

Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Group of Thirty

Former Governor, Bank of Israel

Former Chairman, JPMorgan Chase International

Tharman Shanmugaratnam

Chairman, Group of Thirty

Senior Minister, Singapore

Chairman, Monetary Authority of Singapore

Guillermo Ortiz

Treasurer, Group of Thirty

Partner, BTG Pactual

Jean-Claude Trichet

Honorary Chairman, Group of Thirty

Former President, European Central Bank

Current Members

Daron Acemoglu

Institute Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Economics

Mark Carney

UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance

Former Governor, Bank of England

Agustín Carstens

General Manager, Bank for International Settlements

Former Governor, Banco de México

Jaime Caruana

Former General Manager, Bank for International Settlements

Former Governor, Banco de Espana

William C. Dudley

Senior Research Scholar, Griswold Center for Economic Policy Studies at Princeton University

Former President, Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Mohamed A. El-Erian

President of Queens' College, Cambridge

Chief Economic Advisor, Allianz

Roger W. Ferguson, Jr.

Steven A. Tananbaum Distinguished Fellow for International Economics, Council on Foreign Relations

Former President and CEO, TIAA

Arminio Fraga

Founding Partner, Gavea Investimentos

Former Governor, Banco Central do Brasil

Jason Furman

Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy, Harvard University

Former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers

Timothy Geithner

President, Warburg Pincus

Former US Treasury Secretary

Gita Gopinath

Economic Counsellor and Director of Research, International Monetary Fund

John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and of Economics, Harvard University

Gerd Häusler

Member of the Supervisory Board, Munich Reinsurance

Former Chairman and CEO, Bayerisch Landesbank

Philipp Hildebrand

Vice Chairman, BlackRock

Former Chairman of the Governing Board, SNB

Gail Kelly

Senior Global Advisor, UBS Group AG

Former CEO and Managing Director, Westpac Banking Corporation

Klaas Knot

President, De Nederlandsche Bank

Vice Chair, Financial Stability Board

Paul Krugman

Distinguished Professor, Graduate Center, CUNY

Christian Noyer

Honorary Governor, Banque de France

Former Chairman, Bank for International Settlements

Raghuram G. Rajan

Distinguished Service Professor of Finance, Chicago Booth School of Business

Former Governor, Reserve Bank of India

Maria Ramos

Co-Chair, UN Secretary General’s Task Force on Digital Financing of Sustainable Development Goals

Former Chief Executive Officer, Absa Group

Carmen Reinhart

Vice President and Chief Economist, World Bank Group

Minos A. Zombanakis Professor of the International Financial System, Harvard Kennedy School

Hélène Rey

Lord Bagri Professor of Economics, London Business School

Kenneth Rogoff

Professor of Economics, Harvard University

Former Chief Economist, International Monetary Fund

Tharman Shanmugaratnam

Senior Minister, Singapore

Chairman, Monetary Authority of Singapore

Lawrence Summers

Charles W. Eliot University Professor, Harvard University

Former US Treasury Secretary

Tidjane Thiam

African Union Special Envoy for COVID-19

Executive Chairman, Freedom Acquisition I Corporation

Adair Turner

Senior Fellow, Institute for New Economic Thinking

Former Chairman, Financial Services Authority

Kevin Warsh

Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University

Lecturer, Stanford University Graduate School of Business

Axel A. Weber

Chairman, UBS Group and Chairman, Institute of International Finance (IIF)

Former President, Deutsche Bundesbank

John C. Williams

President, Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Former President, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

Yi Gang

Governor, People's Bank of China

Ernesto Zedillo

Director, Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, Yale University

Former President of Mexico

Senior Members

Leszek Balcerowicz

Professor, Warsaw School of Economics

Former Governor, National Bank of Poland

Domingo Cavallo

Chairman and CEO, DFC Associates, LLC

Former Minister of Economy, Argentina

Mario Draghi

Prime Minister, Italy

Former President, European Central Bank

Mervyn King

Member, House of Lords

Former Governor, Bank of England

Guillermo Ortiz

Partner, BTG Pactual

Former Governor, Banco de Mexico

Masaaki Shirakawa

Distinguished Guest Professor, Aoyama-Gakuin University

Former Governor, Bank of Japan

Janet Yellen

US Treasury Secretary

Former Chair, Federal Reserve System

Zhou Xiaochuan

President, China Society for Finance and Banking

Former Governor, People's Bank of China

Emeritus Members

Abdlatif Al-Hamad

Former Chairman, Arab Fund for Economic Development

Former Minister of Finance and Planning, Kuwait

Geoffrey L. Bell

Founder, Group of Thirty

President, Geoffrey Bell and Associates

E. Gerald Corrigan

Former Managing Director, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.

Former President, Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Guillermo de la Dehesa

Chairman of the International Advisory Board, IE Business School

Chairman, Aviva Grupo Corporativo

Jacques de Larosière

Former Chairman, Eurofi

Former Director, IMF

Richard A. Debs

Former President, Morgan Stanley International

Former COO, Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Gerhard Fels

Former Director, Institut der Deutschen Wirtschaft

Former Member, UN Committee for Development Planning

Stanley Fischer

Senior Adviser, BlackRock

Former Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve

Jacob A. Frenkel

Former Governor, Bank of Israel

Former Chairman, JPMorgan Chase International

Toyoo Gyohten

Honorary Advisor, Institute for International Monetary Affairs

Former Chairman, Bank of Tokyo

John Heimann

Senior Advisor, Financial Stability Institute

Former Comptroller of the Currency, United States

Haruhiko Kuroda

Governor, Bank of Japan

Former President, Asian Development Bank

William R. Rhodes

President and CEO, William R. Rhodes Global Advisors

Former Chairman and CEO, Citibank

Jean-Claude Trichet

Former President, European Central Bank

Former Governor, Banque de France

David Walker

Former Chairman, Winton

Former Chairman, Barclays

Marina v N. Whitman

Professor Emerita, University of Michigan

Former Member, Council of Economic Advisors

Yutaka Yamaguchi

Former Deputy Governor, Bank of Japan

Former Chairman, Euro Currency Standing Commission

Staying Connected

In keeping with our mission, the Group of Thirty is constantly working to address the many issues facing both policymakers and market practitioners alike. To remain connected with the work of the Group of Thirty, we encourage you to sign up for our online newsletter and follow us on Twitter @GroupofThirty.

Subscribe to the G30 Newsletter

Group of Thirty 1701 K Street, NW, Suite 950, Washington, DC 20006, USA | PHONE: 202-331-2472 | TWITTER: @GroupofThirty Copyright © 2021. All rights reserved.

Bye bye Europe, bye bye ...

 

I fear that the EU’s new dystopian ‘digital identity wallet’ will be used to control and track people in the way China does

5 Jun, 2021 06:04

Get short URL

FILE PHOTO. A customer scans a QR on their phone. © AFP / Niklas HALLE'N

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

Follow RT on

By Rachel Marsden, columnist, political strategist and host of an independently produced French-language program that airs on Sputnik France. Her website can be found at rachelmarsden.com

There are now two types of people: Loyalists, who meekly obey all the new rules being brought in under the cover of Covid, and Resisters, who don’t. Our freedom rests on more people realising the truth of what is happening.

The European Union’s executive commission has just announced the introduction of a pan-EU digital identification that citizens of member states can use across the entire bloc that will store important identification and official documents, like a driver’s license, prescriptions, diplomas, and presumably Covid-19 test and vaccination certificates. It will also be linked to an e-wallet, which large online platforms will be required to accept. 

Read more

Why are France’s sanitary dictators so keen on mandatory vaccination? By moving the goalposts, they’re slowing return to normality

It’s easy enough to imagine how this can get out of hand. At first, it’s a soft sell, and we’re told that there’s no pressure to participate in what is essentially a government-created digital dragnet. But then the noose tightens as people start to realize how inconvenient life can quickly become if you aren’t connected to the Matrix. We’ve seen the same phenomenon recently with vaccinations – which are still technically optional, but to which many are now simply succumbing if only to avoid the hassles and hoop-jumping that risk becoming the norm for those who aren’t vaccinated and want to travel and live like they did pre-Covid.

Is there any doubt that governments – including supranational ones like the EU – have no interest in simply allowing people to get back to their normal lives? They’re treating the crisis like an opportunity to foist onto citizens whatever weird dystopian fever dreams have been lurking in the back of their warped minds. 

Sure, it’s entirely possible that the EU wants to just make our lives easier by creating their own platform that allows us to upload everything related to our identity, along with our money, which can then feasibly be cross-referenced with many of our daily activities as we merrily scan our way through life. But you’d have to be pretty naïve to believe that they’d bother doing anything that didn’t have some kind of major payback for them.

It’s hard not to think of the similarities with China’s social credit system, first introduced in 2014 and consisting of a similar digital ID and e-wallet, that has evolved to control and deny access to everything from travel, high-speed internet and university access for individuals based on “violations” like playing too many video games, making posts that the government doesn’t like on social media, wasting money on things that the government considers junk, or generally not behaving in a government-approved way in your daily life.

What makes anyone think that this kind of digital panopticon isn’t lurking at the end of the EU’s slippery slope – particularly when this is exactly how the phenomenon started in China? Just consider how much freedom that many governments were able to suppress with nearly zero popular resistance or even critical thought as a result of playing on people’s fear. 

Read more

The future is ‘CLEAR’ and it’s Dystopian: Virus hype ushers in a Covid 19-84 nightmare of restricted access

Ever since governments’ initial “two weeks to flatten the curve”, they’ve been able to convince some people to stay at home for months, avoid normal socialization, wear mask-muzzles outdoors and rub hydroalcoholic gel on their hands until they’re raw, rush home en masse for curfews that start before the workday even ends, close shops and fitness facilities, and rush to get vaccinated against a virus with an infinitesimal mortality rate – and then cry from relief about it like brainwashed members of a fear-porn cult.

This is going to go one of two ways now. Young people who risked virtually nothing health-wise and everything related to their future, have just witnessed a period of intense government intervention akin to a state-run wartime operation – including the psychological operations. And just as with war, people have chosen their side and aren’t likely to budge. There are those who have become increasingly dependent on government to think for them, to save them, to protect them, and to dictate every facet of their lives under the pretext of being the all-knowing gurus whose advice absolutely must be followed. And anyone who doesn’t is a narcissistic dirtbag who doesn’t care about his fellow man. 

On the other side of the spectrum are those who think the people described above are virtue-signaling, brainless sheep who are stupid enough to actually believe government officials and their so-called expert advisors who have said everything and its opposite since the start of the pandemic. They’re skeptical about the value of restrictions and reject the lack of proportionality of the extreme liberticidal measures being taken. And now they see some governments attempting to introduce long-term tracking and tracing measures that could long outlive the pandemic and take on a life of their own.

Each of these two factions of people – let’s call them the Government Loyalists and the Resisters – are going to represent an increasing number of citizens in countries where the Covid crisis and its legacy drags on. They’re going to clash everywhere from the workplace to the public square, as each grows more intolerant of the other. And until everyone unites in demanding that everything return to pre-pandemic normal by turning their focus to governments set on exploiting this crisis, expect the radicalization on both sides to continue.

COME TENERE SOTTO CONTROLLO L'INQUINAMENTO SEMANTICO DEL MONDO

Based Nigeria: African country teaches US lesson in how to handle Big Tech tyranny

Nebojsa Malic

is a Serbian-American journalist, blogger and translator, who wrote a regular column for Antiwar.com from 2000 to 2015, and is now senior writer at RT. Follow him on Telegram @TheNebulator and on Twitter @NebojsaMalic

4 Jun, 2021 20:34

Get short URL

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, December 18, 2020 file photo. ©  REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

Follow RT on

Nigeria is a far more serious and “based” country than the US, at least if President Muhammadu Buhari’s response to Twitter censorship – compared to that of Donald Trump’s – is anything to go by.

The government in Abuja announced on Friday it had “indefinitely suspended” the US-based platform, following Twitter’s censorship of Buhari. The move was made because of “the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria's corporate existence,” said Information Minister Lai Mohammed.

Nigeria’s TV and press regulator, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), will also start the process of “licensing” all social media platforms in the country, the government said. In a twist of irony, the decision was announced on Twitter. Also, the ban doesn’t appear to have gone into effect just yet, and Nigerians are reportedly flocking to virtual private networks to circumvent it.

Also on rt.com Nigeria suspends Twitter’s operations ‘indefinitely’ after president’s tweet removed from platform

The Nigerian government also missed an easy opportunity to clobber Twitter with its own wokeness cudgel and accuse CEO Jack Dorsey of being racist and Islamophobic – considering Buhari is both African and Muslim.

All that aside, however, Abuja’s response stands in stark contrast to that of official Washington from a year ago, when Twitter censored then-US President Donald Trump – and then the White House account – citing the same pretext of “glorifying violence” or “threatening harm” to individuals or groups. Trump responded by signing an executive order intended to crack down on social media censorship… and nothing happened.

The career bureaucrats in DC simply ignored the president’s orders and stood by while Twitter, Facebook and YouTube helped 'fortify' the 2020 elections in favor of Democrat Joe Biden – who revoked Trump’s order last month, without bothering to offer an explanation. 

Trump’s toothless response to censorship eventually led to Twitter banning his account after the January 6 Capitol riot – while he was still the sitting president – and the other Big Tech platforms following suit. Not only is he banned from having an account, but others interviewing him will get censored for daring to broadcast his “voice.” 

Also on rt.com Facebook suspends Trump’s account for two years following oversight board report

Yet most of the US media and civil libertarian groups see nothing wrong with this, and are even arguing that such censorship – using corporations as proxies for the government – isn’t violating the First Amendment. 

The entire democratic world seems to have no trouble seeing how menacing it is for democracy to have our political discourse policed by Silicon Valley monopolists, while pressured by political parties.Only US liberals & their journalists can't see it. They're pro-censorship.

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 4, 2021

By contrast, it took Nigeria two days to respond to Twitter’s censorship of its president with a ban on the platform. It may only amount to a symbolic gesture, but it sends a clear message to San Francisco that this kind of behavior by Big Tech will not be tolerated.

Buhari’s critics have argued that the ban is “not in keeping with democracy, the rule of law, and the independence of the media.” But Twitter’s censorship is? Who’s in charge here, an elected government of a sovereign country, or a corporation on the other side of the world? That’s really the question here.

Because the American civil war ended in 1865, and long passed out of living memory, Biden may be able to get away with pseudo-historical narratives comparing the Capitol riot to it. Nigeria’s civil war against the Biafran separatists ended in 1970, and claimed more lives. So when Buhari warns those currently “misbehaving” that its veterans will treat them “in the language they understand,” that is indeed a threat – to separatists. 

Also on rt.com The internet once offered a promise of free speech for everyone; Big Tech has since turned it into a prison

When it censored Trump on the same grounds a year ago, Twitter had posted messages in support of Black Lives Matter, making its politics abundantly clear. The Nigerian government looked at the company banning Buhari but not the current Biafran leader, and concluded that Twitter supported separatists. No government can tolerate that and survive for long, any more than having corporations dictate the terms of their politics – as Trump’s own experience clearly showed.