Robert Walker, President of the Population Institute in Washington, D.C., told WEJ in an interview about the repercussions of uncontrolled population growth, how overcrowding will affect macroeconomic indicators, and what needs to be done now to keep the situation from losing control.

Mr. Walker, in your view, is the problem of overpopulation on Earth really so overwhelming, or is the scope of the crisis being exaggerated by the media?
Rapid population growth threatens our long-term economic growth and ecological stability. The problem is real, even if some people underestimate it.

Yet according to forecasts by World Population Prospects, which is released every two years by the  UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the most likely scenario is one in which the population declines due to a declining birthrate…
Yes, but this is an understated (conservative) scenario based on the assumption that the global birthrate will continue to decline in the future. According to the “medium variant” population projection issued by the United Nations earlier this year [editor’s note: which developed four scenarios: high, medium, low, and a scenario with a constant birthrate], world population is expected to surpass 9.6 billion by 2050, and 10.9 billion by 2100. This is a conservative projection that assumes that global fertility rates will continue to decline. If fertility rates remain unchanged, world population could surge to 27 billion by the end of the century. Fertility rates, however, are not decreasing as fast as previously hoped in many developing countries, and adolescent pregnancy rates in many areas are on the rise again.

If you travel towards the mountains along the French Riviera, just north of the coast, among the villas, olive trees, and plants that flower year-round is the Sophia Antipolis Technopark, home to the Business Angels. They flew here from all over the world – people who believe in an idea and giving it life.

The American Marilyn Davison lives in a massive complex, located by some seemingly magical set of circumstances on Angels’ Bay in the town of Villeneuve-Loubet, not far from the Sofia Antipolis Technopark. “My husband and I were both invited to join this community. My husband worked for a small American company that has launched activities in Europe. He founded the first company, whose employees have grown over time from one person to 13. Later he worked with distributors all across Europe and the Middle East, even once going to Russia. We started in Brussels, then moved to Nice, then from Nice to Paris, then once again returned to Mougins, and finally settled here in Villeneuve-Loubet.”
“Wonderful people! Great project!” is how Marilyn Davison talks about everyone with whom she has had a chance to work. There are angels all around us, we just don’t notice them. Many such communities exist – in Nice, for example, there is a Mediterranean community, and in Paris there are many as well.

British economist and Nobel Prize laureate Christopher Antoniou PISSARIDES, the author of works on the theory of economic growth and the causes of unemployment, visited World Economic Journal editor-in-chief Robert GUBERNATOROV.

Professor Pissarides, what do you think the future of Europe holds? Is it likely that Europe will split into countries that stick with the euro, and countries that leave the European Union and return to their national currencies?
I think that Europe will keep the single currency, despite everything. It would be very difficult to separate the Eurozone, and I do not see any benefits to countries that withdraw from the European Union. The countries of Europe definitely need to stay together. There are no advantages for countries that join together in rather small independent unions.

Professor Robert Mundell, Nobel Prize winner in economics and the person known as the “father” of the euro, visits the Chief Editor of World Economic Journal.
– In the foreseeable future, is there a possibility of a third global currency (along with the dollar and the euro) emerging in Asia?
– That strong currency would most likely be the renminbi (yuan). If China’s GDP keeps growing at the same rate over the next 10 years, it could catch up to the U.S. So I don’t rule out that by somewhere around 2025 the world could have three main currencies: the dollar, the euro, and the yuan. Moreover, the Japanese yen has a chance at becoming the fourth world currency unit. It’s also possible that the British pound could advance and become a fifth currency. But there is a lot of competition between the Chinese and Japanese currencies and if the dollar and the euro calmly interact with one another, the yuan and yen don’t. Overall, some countries could be part of a single currency zone which doesn’t require them to use a single currency, but would simply requires them to regulate the currency exchange rates in that region, that is, to set the ratio of the euro and dollar, for example. Changing the currency of your country to another one is a serious political move and no one will go for being in a country that swings between two currencies. That’s why creating a single currency for the entire Asian region doesn’t seem possible to me. Maybe they’ll ‘make friends’ later, but for now the Asian countries can perfectly well keep their own currencies and simply regulate the exchange rates.

Nestor Osorio, the head of the UN Economic and Social Council, shared his ideas with a correspondent of World Economic Journal about combating unemployment, and proposed creating a new bloc of countries, rather than expanding the BRICS. 

The most acute and frequently discussed question today remains how to get out of the crisis. Many hope that the creation of G Global might change the situation. How do you, as the President of ECOSOC, view this idea? To what extent could such a grouping solve the crisis?
All of us today could be called witnesses to a special moment of history. The economic crisis has affected all developed countries and has accordingly had an impact on developing countries as well, especially in the areas of financing for development and technology transfer. We could get out of this situation if world leaders would meet, not just in small groups among themselves, but rather create a more representative, multilateral, and transparent system. The G Global strategy is precisely to create such an all-inclusive organization, comprising large as well as medium-sized and small countries. When discussing the crisis, I generally insist that there has to be a connection to the private sector, since that in particular can become the driver for revival and development. And governments, the international community, and international organizations should help one another and provide the necessary stimulus for solving the crisis and all the problems it entails.

Alejandro Jara, Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organization