Speaker Preview: Citi’s Willem H. Buiter on the Drivers of Global Growth
By Len Costa and Usman Hayat, CFA
Forget terms like “emerging markets” and “BRIC” countries. The new growth metric is “3G.”
That, roughly speaking, is the gist of an 87-page report (PDF) published in February by Willem H. Buiter, chief economist at Citi Investment Research & Analysis — and a speaker at the 64th CFA Institute Annual Conference, where he will tackle “The Risks of Global Imbalances” in a session moderated by David Enrich of The Wall Street Journal.
Buiter’s use of 3G isn’t shorthand for the popular wireless technology but instead refers to “Global Growth Generators,” a term he coined to define “the countries, regions, cities, trade corridors, sectors, industries, firms, technologies, products, and asset classes that over the next 5, 10, 20, and 40 years are expected to deliver high growth and profitable investment opportunities.”
Interestingly, Buiter’s list of the eleven most promising 3G countries includes India and China — one-half of the BRIC countries — but not Brazil and Russia.
In his session at the 64th Annual Conference, Buiter will not only tackle the subject of risk and opportunity in emerging markets, but he will also address how investors should prepare for the next stage of the financial crisis and how the disintegration of the euro area can be prevented.
Born in the Netherlands in 1949, Buiter earned a PhD in economics from Yale University. He joined Citi as chief economist in January 2010 after serving as Professor of European Political Economy at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Many investment professionals have come to know Buiter through his blog “Maverecon,” which he (unfortunately) mothballed after joining Citi. But Buiter has not given up writing: His ever-growing list of publications includes five books, 70 articles in refereed professional journals, and 67 additional technical articles. (Buiter’s list of hobbies is equally extensive, ranging from science fiction to “free software.”)
“I will continue to write and publish fast and furiously and to speak out in public on the issues of the day,” Buiter wrote in his final Maverecon blog post in December 2009.
He takes the podium in Edinburgh on 10 May.
Watch Willem Buiter discuss the outlook for global economic growth and the nuclear crisis in Japan in this 17 March interview with Bloomberg Television:
