This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• George Soros (Financial Times): Do not ignore the need for financial reform, October 25, 2009. It is not the right time to enact permanent reforms. The financial system is far from equilibrium. The short-term needs are the opposite of what is needed in the long term.

• Paul Sandison: The two main threats to democracy and modern capitalism, October 20, 2009. In the present burgeoning economic crisis, already well over a hundred million people across the globe have been thrown into poverty, despair, sickness and are struggling to avoid a premature death. Billions of people abroad are vowing never to allow the United States and the United Kingdom to do this to them again. The remaining question is whether the

This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

Bénassy-Quéré, Kumar and Pisani-Ferry (RGE Monitor): G20, Not G7, September 25, 2009. A striking outcome of the global financial crisis has been the substitution of the G7 for the G20 as the key forum for international coordination. There is something like a paradox in such substitution since the agenda of G20 meetings has so far focused on financial regulation issues, which are of more concern for G7 than for non-G7 G20 countries. Indeed, it has so far been much more specific on financial regulation than on trade, global imbalances or the reform of Bretton Woods institutions, where the views of non-G7 G20 countries are highly needed.

WSJ Blogs - Real Time Economics: Marc Faber takes on Krugman, links Bernanke and Mugabe, September

Michael Pettis, professor of finance at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management and author of the China Financial Markets blog, has just been interviewed by the Geoff Dyer, FT’s Beijing Bureau Chief on a number of China-related issues. The three-part interview is not only topical, but also excellent viewing material.

Part 1:

Pettis discusses where China may diversify its foreign exchange reserves and whether the renminbi will become the global reserve currency.

Click here or on the image below to view the video.

Part 2:

Pettis discusses the lessons other countries can learn from China’s growth model and its handling of the financial crisis.

Click here or on the image below to view the video.