Last year, the IMF created a working group to examine one of the most pressing issues facing the global economy and development today: jobs and inclusive growth. The problem exists in both the developed world and the developing world. Indeed, the Arab Spring and protests throughout southern europe have brought this issue to greater light. The working group reported its preliminary findings today at the IMF World Bank Spring Meetings, seeking the feedback of civil society actors and think tank fellows like yours truly.

At the IMF and World Bank spring meetings in Washington, D.C., there continues to be great talk  about the merits of capital controls. Particularly because we live in a time where developed countries continue to have low interest rates and developing countries have high interest rates that effectively cause a rapid and large influx of capital moving into developing and emerging market economies.

As witnessed by the number of panels at the International Studies Association annual convention dealing with the BRICS, the academic community is catching up to the phenomenon of rising powers as a collective project. Yet, the more it exhibits the features of an important growth industry for scholars, the more enigmatic the nature of the BRICS is.  Instead of clarifying what the meaning of this institutional arrangement is about, the New Delhi summit on March 29 supplies far more questions than answers.