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Four Ways We Can Fix Economics in 2019
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Four Ways We Can Fix Economics in 2019


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The global economy spawned by the Fourth Industrial Revolution has created opportunities for many, yet it has also displaced those unprepared to navigate its new contours. Economist Saadia Zahidi highlights four urgent challenges leaders around the world face in handling a 21st-century economy. She notes that retraining the displaced and ensuring a basic social safety net are critical issues that need urgent attention before it is too late. This concise but illuminating article offers much food for thought to executives, analysts and policy experts.

Summary

The confluence of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and globalization is rapidly transforming the world economy, abruptly upending its opportunities, beneficiaries and long-standing support structures. These forces of change have benefited many in the developed economies, greatly rewarding a few participants but diminishing middle-class jobs and wage growth. Emerging markets have boomed from globalized manufacturing, but 4IR threatens that growth model. Common to both developed and developing countries is a sense of economic uncertainty, which has driven the rise of populism in many parts of the globe. The Brexit decision is but...

About the Author

Saadia Zahidi leads the Centre for the New Economy and Society at the World Economic Forum.