Stories written by Jomo Kwame Sundaram
                                                                                                                                                                  Jomo Kwame Sandaram is a Malaysian economist who currently serves as research advisor at the Khazanah Research Institute, a visiting fellow at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia University, and an adjunct professor at the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM).                                                                                                                                                                   He was Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development in the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) from 2005 to 2012, and Assistant Director-General and Coordinator for Economic and Social Development at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) from 2012 to 2015. From 2010 to 2012 he acted as the G20 “sherpa” to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and from 2011 as the UN’s G20 finance deputy.                                                                                                                                                                                     After the 2018 Malaysian general election, Sundaram was appointed as one of five members of the Council of Eminent Persons, advising then Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamed. Throughout his career, Sundaram has authored over 50 books, edited more than 50 volumes and written numerous academic papers and media articles. He has contributed over 400 opinion editorials to IPS Inter Press Service, covering a wide range of topics related to development, globalization, human rights and environmental issues.

IMF Urges Non-alignment in Second Cold War

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
The IMF no. 2 recommends non-alignment as the best option for developing countries in the second Cold War as geopolitics threatens already dismal prospects for the world economy and wellbeing.

Industrial Policy, East or West, for Development or War?

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Developing countries wanting to pursue industrial policy were severely reprimanded by advocates of the ‘neoliberal’ Washington Consensus. Now, it is being deployed as a weapon in the new Cold War.

Global South Stagnating under Heavier Debt Burden

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Much higher interest rates – due to Western central banks – are suffocating developing nations, especially the poorest, causing prolonged debt distress and economic stagnation.

Building Popular National Economic Alternatives*

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Viable, popular national economic alternatives require conditions to help build and sustain them. An independent, accountable government can ensure supportive institutions, including laws.

Hapless New Year for Global South

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
As dire economic predictions for 2023 did not materialise, pundits began 2024 far more optimistically. But policy ghosts from the last half-century will likely undermine such wishful thinking.

Imperialism, Globalisation and Its Discontents*

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Imperialism continues to dominate the world. Globalisation is losing to some of its anti-theses, but imperialism still rules, increasingly by law, albeit in changing even contradictory ways.

North Ignores ‘Perfect Storm’ in Global South

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
A gathering ‘perfect storm’ – due to various developments, several quite deliberate – now threatens much devastation in the global South, likely to most hurt the poorest and most vulnerable.

Neocolonial ISDS, Abused, Biased, Costly, and Grossly Unfair

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions in international trade and investment agreements – long abused by opportunists with means – are slowly being rejected by cautious governments.

Onerous Debt Making Poorest Poorer

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Contractionary economic trends since 2008 and ‘geopolitical’ conflicts subverting international cooperation have worsened world conditions, especially in the poorest countries, mainly in Africa, leaving their poor worse off.

PPPs’ Private Gain at Public Expense

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
At high cost and with dubious efficiency, public-private partnerships (PPPs) have increased private profits at the public expense. PPPs have proved costly in financing public projects.

World Bank Enables Foreign Aid Theft

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
World Bank aid encourages governments to enable illicit financial outflows to offshore tax havens by reducing capital controls, thus draining precious foreign exchange and government resources.

World Bank Enables Private Capture of Profits, Public Resources

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
The World Bank insists commercial finance is necessary for achieving economic recovery and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but does little to ensure profit-hungry commercial finance serves the public interest. By failing to address pressing challenges within their purview, the second-ever Bretton Woods institutions’ (BWIs) annual meetings on the African continent, in Marrakech in October 2023, set the developing world even further back.

Rich Nations, IMF Deepen World Stagnation

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
With the US Fed raising interest rates, the world economy is slowing as debt distress spreads across the global South, increasing poverty worldwide to pre-pandemic levels, with the poorest countries faring worst.

Big Cons: How Consultancy Firms Undermine Governments

By Ong Kar Jin and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Greater government reliance on consulting companies has greatly enriched them while also undermining state capacities, capabilities, national economies, progress, governance and legitimacy.

Rich Distort Climate Problems, Offer Self-Serving Solutions

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Yin Shao Loong
Many in the wealthy West have misrepresented the causes of global warming, offering false solutions while claiming the high moral ground. This distracts attention from how they became wealthy while emitting greenhouse gases.

Middle-Income Country Trap?

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
In recent decades, failure to sustain economic progress has been blamed on a supposed middle-income country (MIC) trap. Such blaming obscures as much as it supposedly explains.

IPEF: New Cold War Weapon Backfires

By Ong Kar Jin and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
US President Joe Biden’s Indo-Pacific Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) is the economic arm of his administration’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, aimed at countering China’s influence in the region.

PPPs Fiscal Hoax Is a Blank Financial Silver Bullet

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Public-private partnerships (PPPs) for infrastructure and service provision are both costly and risky. Worse, PPPs typically fail to ensure universal, let alone fair access to public amenities.

Even Rich Nations Now Worried About ISDS

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Governments the world over are worried about investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) rules. These allow foreign investors to sue them for billions over new laws or policies reducing their profits.

Action Delayed, Justice Denied by Voluntary ESG Approach

By Siti Sarah Abdul Razak and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Policy approaches relying solely on voluntary actions to address urgent needs are unlikely to succeed. Depending on optional compliance to address global warming will not fix things in time.

Insider Exposé of ESG Greenwashing

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
A senior manager of the world’s largest investment firm has ‘blown the whistle’ on ESG (environment, social and governance) ‘greenwashing’, especially on supposed climate finance.
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