Christine Lagarde: Thinking globally, speaking locally
The relentless rise in world population during the century ahead means we must develop new technologies and policies to spur economic growth, said Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), while delivering MIT's Karl Taylor Compton Lecture on Friday. In a sweeping overview of global demographics and their effects on our civic structures, Lagarde highlighted the many challenges of living on an increasingly crowded planet, including fiscal and environmental stresses. But she emphasized that a growing population need not portend a kind of doomsday scenario, as some have envisioned. “We need to re-frame the debate about demographics,” Lagarde said. “I believe that this challenge can be met. But it requires the right policies, political resolve, and strong leadership. … The fiscal policy responses and technological innovation are especially important parts of the solution.” The world population is currently around 7.5 billion people and is projected to grow to 10 billion...