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ambisa moyo received a doctorate in Moyo one of the world’s 100 most influential macroeconomics from Oxford University, people. She sits on the boards of Barclays, Barrick a Master of Public Administration from Gold and Chevron. Harvard University and an MBA from One late morning in March, just ahead of a lunch American University, from which she also date with Oprah Winfrey, Ms. Moyo sat down at Dreceived a degree in chemistry. the New York offices of Brunswick to talk about the Yet her credentials as a global economist go publication of her fourth book. beyond her academic achievements. She worked for nearly a decade for Goldman Sachs, and before that Your new book, Edge of Chaos: Why Democracy for the World Bank. She has visited more than 80 Is Failing to Deliver Economic Growth and How countries, and her own experiences span both the to Fix It, sounds potentially ominous. What developed and developing world. A resident of New is the worst-case scenario facing Western York City and the United Kingdom, she’s a native of democracies? Zambia, where she was born and raised. The worst fear is it becomes so dysfunctional it ends As an author, she has published three New York The best- up operating at the extremes. And the extremes Times best-sellers. The first, Dead Aid, is a treatise on selling author, would be either a plutocratic coterie of very wealthy the failure of aid to Africa. Next came How the West economist people controlling not just politics but public was Lost, her argument that misguided economic and Chevron policy, or where populism renders government policies have dimmed the futures of developed dysfunctional, because it is continually pandering to Board member countries; and a third, Winner Take All, examines the the populist sentiments or zeitgeist of the moment. implications of China’s purchase of natural resources speaks to We’re already trending toward those extremes. around the world. Brunswick’s We’re sitting here the day after the Italian election, Ms. Moyo has nearly 1.2 million followers on kevin helliker which appears to have produced a somewhat LinkedIn, and nearly 200,000 on Twitter. Among about the future dysfunctional government. other accolades, Time magazine once called Ms. of democracy With Brexit in the UK, the government is essentially grounded from having any long-term discussions about education or infrastructure or healthcare. Then there’s the US, where during the 2016 elections, 158 families accounted for 50 percent of political contributions. This smells of wealth so correlated with public policy that the idea of one-man/one-vote is not really reflected in DAMBISA the democracy. MOYO40 brunswick review · issue 15 · 2018 PHOTOGRAPH: COURTESY OF DAMBISA MOYO DAMBISA OF COURTESY PHOTOGRAPH: MOYO brunswick review · issue 15 · 2018 41 DAMBISA MOYO ”PEOPLE AROUND Did this book begin before or after the 2016 underperformance and switch directions. In much US election? the same vein, I would hope that Americans could THE WORLD TRUST Before. The book was borne out of frustration. I’ve look at China and acknowledge that it has done AUTHORITARIAN worked on Wall Street and in finance all my life, and well in many respects. It has come from essentially as an economist I’ve gotten increasingly frustrated nowhere over the past 30 years to become the GOVERNMENTS TO by a mismatch between the lens that economists see second-richest country in the world, moving DELIVER, MORE through and the lens used by public policymakers hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. and politicians. What economists see are long-term, We may not like their system, but let’s at least THAN THEY TRUST intergenerational, structural problems, such as be objective enough to try and understand what DEMOCRATIC income quality, the jobless underclass, high debt the best parts of that system are. The Chinese levels, productivity declines and natural resource are ideological about economic growth and GOVERNMENTS. scarcity. Politicians facing election every two to four progress. They’re not to my mind ideological about HOW CAN years are treating these problems as short-term. democracy or market capitalism or any system for Short-termism is also a problem in corporations, that matter. WE IMPROVE of course. But what’s most worrisome to me is In fact, if we were able to convince them that DEMOCRACY the short-term focus of governments and public democracy and market capitalism could deliver policymakers. Of all the headwinds democracies are economic growth, they would adopt it tomorrow. SO THAT PEOPLE facing, the overarching one is myopia. The problem is they don’t believe that it can generate PLACE MORE economic growth in a sustained and equitable way. What are your solutions? I was born, raised and spent my formative years TRUST IN IT?” I offer a menu of 10 proposals. One would be to in Zambia, Africa – one of the poorest countries in extend political terms. Rather than two-year or the world. All my life I have been raised to believe four-year election cycles, you could do what you see that democracy and market capitalism are the path in Brazil, where it’s a nine-year term for a senator, or to economic growth, better living standards and Mexico, where it’s a six-year term for the presidency. reducing poverty. With that, there could be a capping of terms. You get However, with China’s legendary economic a longer term, but without the incumbent who hangs success and democracies in advanced countries around as in an autocracy. struggling, people around the world are no longer I’d also argue for some kind of a system that convinced. Why? Perhaps because we who believe in binds government to legislation, so you don’t democracy are no longer convincing. have public policies swinging around after every election. A recent example would be around Do you believe in market capitalism? Obama’s healthcare; it went back and forth through I am a believer, but I also recognize its weaknesses. a legislative process and was passed. The last thing Income inequality has widened, whether we’ve you need is a new government coming in a year had Republicans or Democrats in office. There’s later and dismantling the whole thing. Obviously, something fundamentally, structurally wrong in the you don’t want to end up in a system with bad system right now that is leading to those outcomes. policy, but you could take into consideration a China’s Gini coefficient is roughly the same as the grandfathering of public policy so that for 10 years United States. How is that possible? Two different it can’t be totally dismantled. That would stabilize political systems, two completely different economic markets and give business and corporations a better systems, and yet they’ve got the same measure of sense of the lay of the land. income inequality. And China’s income inequality’s improved over the last 10 years. That of the United What is your hope for Edge of Chaos? States has worsened. That there’ll be an open debate about the ways we can improve on democracy. Studies from the World Do you think it’s possible that Western Economic Forum say people around the world trust dominance will turn out to have been a phase to authoritarian governments to deliver, more than they be overshadowed in the decades ahead by China? trust democratic governments. How can we improve Obviously I can’t see the future. But through democracy so that people place more trust in it? the democratic process, we are seeing a backlash I love living in the United States. I choose to be against market capitalism and also against the here and not elsewhere because one of the hallmarks political establishment. Those are the two pillars of of Americana is the ability to look at things, see Western civilization. 42 brunswick review · issue 15 · 2018 But I don’t think we’ve yet been road-tested Do you see any momentum toward increased on what the outcome is. Will populism lead to female representation on boards? a more socialist type of world view? You could I am quite optimistic about that. The intellectual argue it’s happening in a sort of stealth way in the argument was settled a long time ago. Our United States. Issues around gun control are now customers are diverse, our regulators are diverse, being decided by cultural norms and sentiment. our investors are diverse. It’s mad to have a board Everything around the Oscars and the arts is being that is not diverse enough to reflect those different heavily influenced by what society’s deeming communities, ways of thinking, historical contexts, important. People are demanding that companies et cetera. It’s critical to whatever it is we’re selling. consider broader issues than narrow returns and the On a very micro level, I receive the National cost of capital. Association of Corporate Directors daily It’s also interesting that the use of executive information on board shifts, and they have a orders has risen not just under Trump, but under breakdown right in the top, by women and men, and the last four presidencies. There might be a stealth those numbers show that we’re moving in the right reorganization under way around what society direction. Are we where we need to be? Of course demands of its political and business leaders. we’re not. But 10 years ago, I was the only woman on The US and China are so interesting to compare the boards where I was serving.

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