“On the positive side, we should consider the counter factual things could have been a lot worse. Relative to 2010, the spectre of currency wars has receded; there is little prospect of a rash of competitive devaluations. As recently as May 2013, Fred Bergsten worried that currency tensions, and the policies fueling them threatened to create the kind of global problems that contributed to the Great Depression, saying ‘Much more seems quite possible in the near future,’ and ‘The economic damage that has already resulted is immense and could become much worse’. But relative stability has prevailed.

On the negative side, while we haven’t suffered from competitive devaluations, the inadequate appreciation of artificially undervalued currencies is discouraging. The approach to sovereign debt restructuring is truly disappointing. As one blogster framed it, ‘When you lend someone an amount of money that they have no ability to repay, then lend them more money to pay interest and keep repeating this process indefinitely, what outcome should one logically expect?’ The reluctance to insist on haircuts, especially for large institutions, is disappointing.”

“Progress on ‘too big to fail’ has been disappointing. Given the necessity for legislative action to change regulations, and the timetable that entails, the Basel III arrangements have far too leisurely a phase-in schedule.”

“No field suffers more international meetings resulting in elegant platitudes and irreproachable aspirational statements. To date the G20 efforts in the development effort have had no impact on the ground. The debate to succeed the millennium development goals with a set of post 2015 Goals, complicated by an independent process to produce global Sustainability Goals, appears to be on a track to result in a deadlock between advocates of retaining the focus on poverty and the poorest, and supporters of broadening the goals to embrace democracy, human rights, diminishing violence and increasing resilience, among other candidate goals. The 0.7% ODA/ GDP target seems forever implausible.”

“The bicycle theory of trade policy negotiations is that continued forward movement is necessary- otherwise you will have a painful misadventure. From this point of view, we are in trouble. Even Pascal Lamy, outgoing director-general of the World Trade Organization, characterizes the Doha Round as deadlocked (although it is hard to see the distinction between irrevocably deadlocked and dead). There are worrying signs that plurilateral negotiations will result in a future patchwork of disparate sets of rules.”

“It is time to call the mortician and arrange for a dignified funeral for the UNFCCC. It is fruitless to continue wasteful annual Conferences of the Parties, with thousands of people convening to pretend that they are making progress, when there is no chance whatsoever of global agreement on either legally binding emissions reductions or on the provision of “new and additional” resources for climate change mitigation and adaptation to be transferred from developed countries to developing countries. New frontiers are being created in euphemisms to continue the cruel pretence of the Copenhagen ‘pledge’ of $100 billion per year of new financial resources. The internationally agreed target of 2 degrees temperature increase is in the rear window and carbon emissions continue their inexorable increase.”