Preparing for economic crisis

What keeps global economy experts up at night? Is it Brexit, Chinese debt, the impact of technology on work, or the “unknown unknowns” — those issues we haven’t yet anticipated? This episode convenes several guests who were in Washington, D.C. recently for the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund. With host Bessma Momani, they discuss how long the current global slowdown could last, the impact of bad policy — or a lack of any policy at all — on living standards, and, despite the many areas of concern, why it is best to focus on being prepared for crisis. Our host Bessma Momani is professor at the Balsillie School of International Affairs and University of Waterloo and a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation. She’s also a non-resident senior fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington, D.C. and a Fulbright Scholar. She has been non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. and a 2015 Fellow at the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation. She’s a frequent analyst and expert on international affairs in Canadian and global media. This week’s guests Rachel Ziemba is an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. Her research focuses on the interlinkages between economics, finance and security issues. She previously served as head of emerging and frontier markets and co-head of research at Roubini Global Economics, a global macro strategy and country risk firm. Before that, Rachel also worked for the Canadian International Development Agency in Cairo, Egypt, and the International Development Research Centre in Ottawa, Canada on development economic issues. Babak Abbaszadeh is president and chief executive officer of non-profit organization Toronto Centre. Previously, Babak held leadership positions in major internationally oriented Canadian financial institutions such as the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Sun Life Financial. Babak was also chief of staff to two senior cabinet ministers. Bob Fay is director of the Centre for International Governance Innovation’s Global Economy Program and is responsible for the research direction of the program and its related activities. Prior to joining CIGI, Bob held several senior roles at the Bank of Canada, most recently as senior director overseeing work to assess developments and implications arising from the digitization of the Canadian economy. Tom Bernes is a distinguished fellow with the Centre for International Governance Innovation. After a distinguished career in the Canadian public service and at leading international economic institutions, Tom was CIGI’s executive director from 2009 to 2012. He has held high-level positions at the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Government of Canada.