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Dear Delegates,
It is my distinct pleasure to welcome you to the Economic and Financial Committee at World Model United Nations 2012! My name is Damon Meng and I am thrilled to be your director. I am a junior at Harvard University concentrating in Economics with a secondary in Government. In addition to my education at Harvard, I am currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Music through the Harvard/New England Conservatory dual degree program. At Harvard, aside from World Model United Nations, I also participate in Harvard National Model United Nations and the Harvard Crimson, the university daily newspaper.
Come March, our committee will tackle some of the most exciting economic and financial topics in our world today. Through examining the impact of sovereign debt on developament, you will begin to better understand the economic and political workings of your own governments. Through analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of rapid urbanization, you will begin to look at cities from new ways and better understand cities, one of humankind’s greatest inventions. I hope that this will be an engaging and stimulating committee for everyone.
If you have any questions, or just want to say hi, please feel free to email me. I need more practice with Chinese and French so feel free to email me in those languages as well. I cannot wait to meet all of you in March!
Sincerely,
Damon Meng
Chair, ECOFIN
World Model United Nations 2012
ecofin@worldmun.org
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Topic A: The European Debt Crisis
The European debt crisis has further shaken the confidence of a world already rattled by the global financial crisis. It started when Greece’s fiscally irresponsible behavior made the country default on its debt and has since spread to Ireland and Portugal. Investor confidence in countries like Spain and Italy has also turned pessimistic. The European problem is emblematic of a decades old problem of sovereign debt and hints at future debt crisis to come. In the past, debt crises in Latin America and the “third world” have destabilized countries and regions. In the future, even rising debt in developed countries like the US and Japan will threaten to destabilize the world economy. The key question is: how can the governments of the world promote fiscal and monetary responsibility to slow rising debt levels?
Topic B: Economic Integration
For some, globalization signifies progress, opportunity, innovation and cooperation. For critics, globalization conjures images of evil multinational corporations, environmental damage and exploitation. While globalization is to some extent all of these, it is at its core the integration of economies around the world. At first, this integration was reflected in technological advances that made it easier to complete international transactions. Soon, it extended to the increase in movement of labor, goods, capital and services.
Despite the benefits of economic integration, countries, especially those in the developing world, are cautious about liberalization too quickly. Many developing countries want to protect and nurture nascent domestic sectors that are not yet internationally competitive. Allowing free trade in those sectors would wipe out domestic firms and result in the loss of millions of jobs. But developing countries are not the only ones wary of rapid integration. Even developed countries realize the political and economic costs of integration. The more economically integrated a region is, the more each national government has to give up in fiscal, monetary, and/or political control.