Catalyzing Consumption and Balancing Growth

This is where the effort to devise institutional mechanisms to check and balance elite behavior enters the picture.

In Egypt, Hosni Mubarak s rule helped to moderate the Israeli Palestinian conflict and balanced Iranian power in the region.

September headline inflation, at 2.6 , is above the ECB s 2 target as is the latest forecast for 2006 inflation (updated forecasts will be released at the beginning of December).

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has referred to the Obama administration s foreign policy as being based on smart power, which combines hard and soft power resources, and she argues that we should not talk about multipolarity, but about multi partnerships.

IADB highlighted elements of a consent based approach to include capacity for negotiation, effective safeguards against adverse effects, and balancing of needs.

This is where the effort to devise institutional mechanisms to check and balance elite behavior enters the picture. Indeed, the search for such mechanisms is precisely what is now underway in Pakistan.

It is noted that central governments tend to be assigned control over protected areas, international trade, balance of inter regional inequities, oversight of lower level governments, protection of the rights of disadvantaged groups, and research, but this may vary depending on national context.

With improved corporate and public governance and clear transfer pricing policies, resource rich countries could shore up their capacity to negotiate fair contracts with extractive industries, balance revenues and expenditures over time, and manage their natural endowments more transparently.