Talk among major economies is intensifying over a "financial firewall" to contain the eurozone crisis. But CFR's Steven Dunaway says the emphasis should be on pressing debt-saddled states to make reforms that will improve their growth prospects.

The ongoing eurozone sovereign-debt crisis dominated the G20 summit in Cannes, but there is little the United States and other G20 nations can do to influence EU policymakers, says CFR's Steven Dunaway.

New IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde has to move quickly to establish independence from the European authorities who got her the job, enhance the IMF's legitimacy, and display her ability to manage the fund, says CFR's Steven Dunaway.

The arrest of IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on charges of sexual assault could hamper the fund's short-term ability to help manage the eurozone crisis but is not likely to harm the IMF over the long term, says CFR's Steven Dunaway.

Instead of addressing serious problems in global imbalances, the February 18-19 meeting of the G20 finance minister is poised to go astray with ineffectual talks on reforming the international monetary system, says CFR's Steven Dunaway.

China's exchange rate policy will dominate the economic dialogue between the United States and China during President Hu's state visit to Washington. There's scant hope differences can be resolved, says CFR's Steven Dunaway.

The Fed's decision to resume quantitative easing will likely shift the focus of the G20 summit and make it harder to settle currency-policy disputes that could derail recovery of the world economy, writes CFR's Steven Dunaway.

The G20 finance ministers' agreement may have helped avert a global currency war. However, by potentially shifting the focus toward reducing external imbalance, there is a risk that policy adjustments needed to deal with imbalances among the major world economies will be neglected, writes CFR's Steven Dunaway.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Geithner signaled the administration's frustration with China's exchange rate policy, while stopping short of endorsing congressional action. But unless China acts soon, the U.S. may have no other choice than to apply sanctions, writes CFR's Steven Dunaway.

By ending the yuan's peg to the U.S. dollar, China will deflect pressure over its currency policy at the upcoming G20 meeting. But tensions will persist over the pace of reform, says CFR's Steven Dunaway.

The upcoming U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue will include tough issues like Iran, North Korea, and U.S. trade concerns over China's "indigenous innovation" policy, say four CFR experts.

International pressure must continue on China to allow its currency to appreciate, which would provide an important boost to the global economic recovery, writes CFR's Steven Dunaway.

China's breathtaking economic growth and massive imbalances with the United States have given rise to some myths about the nature of the two powers' relationship that can impede sound policymaking, writes CFR's Steven Dunaway.

China's continued impressive growth is by no means assured, writes CFR's Steven Dunaway. Without basic changes to its economic model, including rule of law reforms, it could face considerable struggles, he says.

Despite early signs of a global economic recovery, CFR Steven Dunaway says it's too early to determine how lasting the rebound might be. "The world economy is not out of the woods yet," he says.

In this Center for Geoeconomic Studies Working Paper, Steven Dunaway argues that the world economy faces the prospect of a prolonged period of slower growth. Other sources of demand need to be found to take up the slack left by slower U.S. growth. However, the prospects for this do not look good, as none of the other major economies appear inclined to make the necessary changes in policies to deal with their imbalances and raise their demand.

As the economic crisis has spread from financial markets to real economies in countries around the world, governments have understandably focused on short-term measures to contain the damage. But in order for policymakers to tackle today’s global economic crisis, this report argues, they must go beyond bailouts and stimulus packages and focus on one of the crisis's root causes: imbalances between savings and investment in major countries. This report is also available in Arabic.