16 - Concluding Thoughts

Summary

Description: The existing global institutional architecture continues to promote anarchic behavior by individual countries. There is no truly global and effective global institution to promote desirable global public goods. Major policies have remained national, with still too little coordination, and raising standards of living is still the most important objective, in spite of the impact that that may have on the environment or on income distribution. Global warming is still not having the impact that it ought to have on global policies. Monetary and fiscal policies have continued to be focused on growth. Correctives are clearly needed to better deal with equity and with environmental policies. The end result of this trend is unknown and worrisome. Clearly it has become more difficult than it was in the nineteenth century to accept the view that the future is correlated with progress and that the standard of living of humans will inevitably continue to improve.