Every credible economic forecaster anticipates a global slowdown. The final communique from the Group of 20 summit last month in Osaka noted that "growth remains low" and "risks remain tilted to the downside." The dangers are many: trade wars, real wars, geopolitical risk, real estate bubbles, mounting government debt and rising inequality with the associated political instabilities that it creates.
In this environment, the world needs a strong and capable economic management. Rarely are prime ministers and presidents economists, but it is not too much to require that background of finance ministers, central bankers and economic advisors. The top positions at international financial institutions should be similarly occupied.
Instead, the professionals are under assault. Mexico's finance minister abruptly resigned this week, charging his boss, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and his government with making uninformed and speculative decisions. In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently fired the head of the central bank because he refused to cut interest rates; Erdogan has declared that interest rates are "the mother of all evil." In India, the central bank has lost three governors in three years, two in less than a year: Gov. Urjit Patel resigned last December and Vice Gov. Viral Acharya suddenly stepped down last month after warning last October about the impact of attacks on the bank's independence.