The architecture of the international monetary system has important implications for the privileges and responsibilities of the reserve currency countries at the center of the system. As China continues to develop and become a leading economy in the global system, it will be important to understand the evolving role of the RMB as a potential new reserve currency and to understand both the domestic and international ramifications of this institutional evolution.

When economies exhibit dreadful results is it because we have flawed understanding? Or are correct models often ignored? Are good economists listened to? Does scientifically robust work prevail when it conflicts with the desires of the powerful? What are the lessons of economic history for understanding the role of expertise in guiding social outcomes?

The formation of expectations and the subtle implicit assumptions regarding knowledge held by consumers, businesses, investors, and policy makers is a foundation stone that must be thoroughly explored so that models of economic dynamics represent the phenomena under investigation in an illuminating manner. The obvious presence of non-routine change, or what Frank Knight called radical uncertainty, challenges the very notion that dynamic economic systems can be modeled as closed systems. How do these models perform? If dynamic economics is better envisioned as an open system, what can researchers do to understand and analyze the decision making process? What are the implications for economic policy and governance of open system dynamics?

The extraordinary development of the emerging economies has been associated with increasing incomes and rising inequality. In the developed world, the integration between emerging and mature economies also has been accompanied by rising inequality, most profoundly in the United States. A myriad of causes related to trade, policy, and technological change have been cited as, reasons for the unequal distribution of income and wealth in varying degrees. As the process continues, what are the implications for societies across the planet as these three large and powerful economies move into the future?

Many developing countries have experienced rapid increases in GDP growth, and traditionally this was considered an adequate proxy for improved human welfare within these countries. However, in recent years some countries have experienced higher growth accompanied by environmental degradation, rising inequality and, social unrest. As a result, we are forced to ask what it is that constitutes real progress and development in a society.