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DHAKA, October 18, 2016 -World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim, concluding a two-day trip to Bangladesh focused on the country's successes in reducing extreme poverty, pledged $2 billion over the next three years in new funding to help the country become less vulnerable to climate change.

Connects to Sophia's post on Bangladesh. . . "Bangladesh is among the countries most at risk from the impacts of climate change. We must confront climate change now as it hits the poor the hardest," said Kim (president of the WOrld Bank).

Guatemala is thinking of following in the footsteps of El Salvador and adopting cryptocurrency as the official currency. A bold and dangerous move

This article provides a slightly more positive outlook on the crisis in Spain. As property prices have fallen, people are much more motivated to buy property now that hugely discounted prices are being offered. If this continues to happen, it might help to solve some of the real estate excess that is occurring in Spain.

I think it will be interesting to see whether this turns out to be a positive for Spain's economy. It appears that with these new sales, Spanish banks are giving the same kinds of indiscriminate mortgages that helped kill the economy in the first place. It seems like banks would have learned their lesson and would be more cautious about this kind of thing. Hopefully there won't be another collapse, but this kind of thing seems to be asking for trouble.

The World Bank is raising its 2017 forecast for crude oil prices to $55 per barrel from $53 per barrel as members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) prepare to limit production after a long period of unrestrained output. This isn't that significant or interesting in itself, but I'm curious about what it means for a lot of foreign policy, particularly for the US in the middle east.

Three years ago, oil was selling at $100+/BBL. I wonder when the price will rise again--I bet before 2020. That changes everything.

In the past 16 years the World Bank has committed more than $2 billion to education in India. Attendance of primary school, which was the first goal, has dramatically improved, however secondary education is still struggling, so India is now turning its focus to that.

Illustrating how the Bank's role in Latin America and the Caribbean has evolved in recent decades, countries in the region now turn increasingly to the institution for more than direct lending, including such services as risk insurance, commodity swaps, and climate adaptation finance.

The region is doing worse. "Latin America and the Caribbean finds itself in the fifth year of an economic slowdown and the second consecutive year of GDP contraction. Worsening external conditions coupled with domestic challenges have reduced expectations for regional growth to -0.7 percent in 2015, with economic activity projected to drop to -1.3 percent in 2016." But also, Mexico and the Caribbean are experiencing 2% growth, while South America is declining 1.7% or more. Why?

I think it is because (and this is just a theory, I do not know for certain) Mexico and the Caribbean have a direct relationship with the USA, which gives them extra economical assistance outside the World Bank.

Banks are beginning to slash prices to sell real estate more easily, eager to get out of the business of being landlords. Some experts worry that they are simply repeating mistakes of the past by handing out 100 percent mortgages again. But giddy Spaniards - those who still have jobs - are lining up to get in on the bargains.

"the "commanding heights" (large-scale industry, foreign trade, banking, and transport) "

A record-breaking 137 economies around the world have established reforms that make starting and operating small/medium-sized business easier. "Doing Business" is the World Bank Organization's annual report that measures the ease of business, and better scores on the report has a correlation with more income equality and less poverty. An especially interesting aspect of the 2017 installment is that it also added gender discrimination to the criteria when assessing a state.

This research paper looks into the data behind debt relief and its correlation with infant mortality. Many studies were conducted in countries that were deep in debt, infant mortality was also very high in these countries. The researches found that when these countries received debt relief, the infant mortality rate goes down by ~0.5%.

The Japanese economy was stagnant from 2002 to 2012. In 2012 Shinzo Abe became Prime Minister, and Haruhiko Kuroda was appointed as the new governor of the Bank of Japan. Abe and Kuroda came in trying to increase inflation from -0.3 percent to 2.0 percent because Japan has seen slow deflation in the 10 years between 2002 and 2012. Questions about the ability of a central bank to increase inflation without increasing national debt, or will money just be pumped into the economy and push the debt crisis further along. Abe and Kuroda hope that the weakened yen will improve Japan's company competitiveness by lowering the cost structure for companies allowing them to produce cheaper products to be consumed in the market. Japan hopes that slowly the price of goods will increase at about 2% a year and hope to see the debt to GDP ratio decrease.

This document is part of a World Bank primer series for politicians and lobbyists around the world. It outlines the main pillars of any successful pension system: a non-contributory pillar, such as social assistance or a "safety net" for individuals with low lifetime incomes; a mandatory pillar, such as an earnings-based, non-replacement saving plan that is not under the control of the individual (Social Security); a secondary, also mandatory pillar that operates as the primary mandatory pillar but is under the individual's control (any defined contribution plan: 401(k), 403(b), etc); an optional, usually private-market plan that can take many forms (defined benefit or defined contribution); and a voluntary, non-financial pillar, such as health care or mortgage assistance. The United States is lacking on all five pillars. Countries such as Denmark, the Netherlands, and Australia are not.

Its crazy how this could possibly happen in our life times. I find it interesting that there are statistics like this and there are still people in the world who don't care.

This is an astonishing number of migrants. However, I doubt people in America will pay attention. We have a pretty dismal record in terms of putting the needs of sub-saharan Africans and Southeast Asians (where the migrants would be from) ahead of the wishes of multi-national corporations.

Why do bonds suffer when interest rates rise? Is it still a good idea for the Federal Reserve Bank to raise interest rates? Why or why not? Good for who? These are all examples of questions that revolve around political economy.

China's stock market bailout was a significant setback to its decades-long efforts to build a modern financial system. Its currency devaluation shocked global investors and altered the policy calculus at central banks. Statistics coming from within China seem to contradict each other, calling into question the legitimacy of such statistics.

Overview of a project to improve elementary education in India I've looked into. Pretty cool because it mentions increasing accountability a lot as did the MENA article.

While more children are being schooled and the literacy rate is rising, MENA schools are not sufficiently preparing their students for work, especially considering the GDPs of these countries and the percent of these GDPs they are spending on education.

This article details the World Bank's activities in Europe and Central Asia. I found it interesting that the vast majority of their efforts focus on the former Soviet Union, where economies are troubled and immigration from North Africa poses a huge problem.

Things are not going well: "Significant poverty reduction over the past decade is reversing, and the sharing of prosperity is stalled in many countries. About 14 percent of the region's population-more than 66 million people-live in poverty, including almost 19 million who live on less than $2.50 a day, the extreme poverty line for the region."