Leading economists Mike Spence and Mohamed El-Erian talk about the “pretty complicated and disorienting environment” we face. 

In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward thinking podcast, co-host Michael Chui talks with A. Michael Spence, dean emeritus of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Mohamed El-Erian, president of Queens’ College Cambridge and chief economic advisor at Allianz. Together with former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, they have leveraged decades of experience to explore the question “Is the world in a state of permacrisis?” 


In this podcast, the guests touch on the following:  
•    How the New Zealand central bank came up with 2 percent as an arbitrary inflation target, which was then adopted by the central banks of major economies around the world. 
•    How the Queen of the United Kingdom asked a room full of economists why they hadn’t seen the Great Financial Crisis coming. 
•    How finance hijacked growth strategies, leading to 20 lost years of thinking about how to promote productivity and high, durable, inclusive growth. 

Leading economists Mike Spence and Mohamed El-Erian talk about the “pretty complicated and disorienting environment” we face. 
In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward thinking podcast, co-host Michael Chui talks with A. Michael Spence, dean emeritus of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Mohamed El-Erian, president of Queens’ College Cambridge and chief economic advisor at Allianz. Together with former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, they have leveraged decades of experience to explore the question “Is the world in a state of permacrisis?” 
 In this podcast, the guests touch on the following:   •    How the New Zealand central bank came up with 2 percent as an arbitrary inflation target, which was then adopted by the central banks of major economies around the world.  •    How the Queen of the United Kingdom asked a room full of economists why they hadn’t seen the Great Financial Crisis coming.  •    How finance hijacked growth strategies, leading to 20 lost years of thinking about how to promote productivity and high, durable, inclusive growth.

Forward Thinking examines groundbreaking ways in which the world is evolving and how people and organizations can respond to changing demands and technologies. In each episode theorists, innovators, and business leaders discuss global trends—technology, artificial intelligence, globalization, urbanization, climate change, and more—with hosts Michael Chui and Janet Bush of the McKinsey Global Institute.

Thought leaders in business, economics, and technology discuss major global trends shaping our lives—from AI to urbanization—with the McKinsey Global Institute.

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