Forward Thinking

McKinsey Global Institute

Forward Thinking examines groundbreaking ways in which the world is evolving and how people and organizations can respond to changing demands and technologies. In each episode theorists, innovators, and business leaders discuss global trends—technology, artificial intelligence, globalization, urbanization, climate change, and more—with hosts Michael Chui and Janet Bush of the McKinsey Global Institute. read less

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Is the world facing a state of permacrisis?

Is the world facing a state of permacrisis?

Leading economists Mike Spence and Mohamed El-Erian talk about the “pretty complicated and disorienting environment” we face. In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward thinking podcast, co-host Michael Chui talks with A. Michael Spence, dean emeritus of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Mohamed El-Erian, president of Queens’ College Cambridge and chief economic advisor at Allianz. Together with former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, they have leveraged decades of experience to explore the question “Is the world in a state of permacrisis?” In this podcast, the guests touch on the following: • How the New Zealand central bank came up with 2 percent as an arbitrary inflation target, which was then adopted by the central banks of major economies around the world. • How the Queen of the United Kingdom asked a room full of economists why they hadn’t seen the Great Financial Crisis coming. • How finance hijacked growth strategies, leading to 20 lost years of thinking about how to promote productivity and high, durable, inclusive growth. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Episodes

Is the world facing a state of permacrisis?

Is the world facing a state of permacrisis?

Leading economists Mike Spence and Mohamed El-Erian talk about the “pretty complicated and disorienting environment” we face. In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward thinking podcast, co-host Michael Chui talks with A. Michael Spence, dean emeritus of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Mohamed El-Erian, president of Queens’ College Cambridge and chief economic advisor at Allianz. Together with former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, they have leveraged decades of experience to explore the question “Is the world in a state of permacrisis?” In this podcast, the guests touch on the following: • How the New Zealand central bank came up with 2 percent as an arbitrary inflation target, which was then adopted by the central banks of major economies around the world. • How the Queen of the United Kingdom asked a room full of economists why they hadn’t seen the Great Financial Crisis coming. • How finance hijacked growth strategies, leading to 20 lost years of thinking about how to promote productivity and high, durable, inclusive growth. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Has the drive toward human development been thrown into reverse?

Has the drive toward human development been thrown into reverse?

The UNDP’s Pedro Conceição talks about today’s global gridlock, uncertainty complex, and a pervasive sense of disempowerment.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Unpacking the mysteries of productivity

Unpacking the mysteries of productivity

Leading economist Chad Syverson speculates about the ingredients in productivity’s secret sauce. In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward thinking podcast, co-host Janet Bush talks with Chad Syverson. Syverson is George C. Tiao Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His work focuses on the interactions between firm structure, market structure, and productivity. In this podcast, he covers topics including the following: Why productivity is importantHow the world economy is doing on productivityWhat major themes of our age, from the path to net zero to trade fragmentation and aging, could impact productivityThe potential role of AI to change the game for productivityHow productivity growth is diffusedSee www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Delivering services to the public—digitally—with Jennifer Pahlka

Delivering services to the public—digitally—with Jennifer Pahlka

A former US deputy chief technology officer talks about how digitization can be used to create a government that works for the people. Jennifer Pahlka is the founder of Code for America, served as the United States government’s deputy chief technology officer, and is author of the book Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better. Jenn joins us to share her personal reflections of her time in government and the path forward.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

What’s the future for cities in the postpandemic world?

What’s the future for cities in the postpandemic world?

Co-host Janet Bush talks with Ed Glaeser, the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics and the chairman of the Department of Economics at Harvard University. His latest book, coauthored with health economist David Cutler, is Survival of the city: The future of urban life in an age of isolation, written to make sense of what might be the impact of the pandemic on cities. They covers topics including: • Has the pandemic changed cities temporarily or permanently?• What does the hybrid building look like? • Do developing world cities teach us something new? • How can homelessness be tackled? See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Forward Thinking on Europe’s existential crisis with Marco Buti

Forward Thinking on Europe’s existential crisis with Marco Buti

Co-host Janet Bush talks with Marco Buti. Buti holds the Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa Chair in European Economic and Monetary Integration at the European University Institute. They cover topics including the following: The evolution of European policy coordinationEuropean competitivenessWhether Europe’s business model is sustainableThe need of more speed among European companies in frontier technologiesThe importance of Europe’s capital markets unionSee www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Forward Thinking on the tricky business of removing carbon from our world with Nan Ransohoff

Forward Thinking on the tricky business of removing carbon from our world with Nan Ransohoff

Co-host Michael Chui talks with Nan Ransohoff. Ransohoff is the head of climate at Stripe and leads Frontier, an advanced market commitment for carbon removal. She answers questions including: Is carbon removal a get out of jail free card for emitters?What are the most promising carbon removal technologies?Is it possible to scale up effective technologies quick enough?How much do costs need to come down before scaling is possible?What is an advanced market commitment?See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Forward Thinking on how geeks are changing the world with Andrew McAfee

Forward Thinking on how geeks are changing the world with Andrew McAfee

Co-host Michael Chui talks with Andy McAfee. McAfee is a principal research scientist at the MIT Sloan School of Management, co-founder and co-director of MIT’s initiative on the digital economy, and the inaugural visiting fellow at the Technology in Society organization at Google. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Forward Thinking on why we ignore inflation—from ancient times to the present—at our peril with Stephen King

Forward Thinking on why we ignore inflation—from ancient times to the present—at our peril with Stephen King

Co-host Janet Bush talks with Stephen King. King is a senior economic advisor to HSBC, having served as the bank’s group chief economist from 1998 to 2015. His latest book, very prescient in timing, is We Need to Talk About Inflation: 14 Urgent Lessons from the Last 2,000 Years. In this podcast, he covers topics including the following: The root causes of the current resurgence of inflationHow long higher inflation may persistWhat history tells us about the management of inflationThe main economic problem that lies aheadWhy inflation mattersSee www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Forward Thinking on the existential issues facing the middle classes in every country with Homi Kharas

Forward Thinking on the existential issues facing the middle classes in every country with Homi Kharas

Co-host Janet Bush talks with Homi Kharas. Kharas is a senior fellow in the Center for Sustainable Development at the Brookings Institution and also cofounder of World Data Lab. He studies policies and trends influencing developing countries, the emergence of the world's middle class, and global governance. He's collaborated with the McKinsey Global Institute on research into consumers in emerging markets and economic empowerment, and his latest book is The Rise of the Global Middle Class: How the Search for the Good Life Can Change The World. In this podcast, he covers topics including the following: How the character of the world’s middle classes is changingHow the middle classes shape our worldWhat becoming middle class means for a householdThe role of the middle class in climate changeHow AI may affect the middle classSee www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Forward Thinking on funding a clean world with Ann Mettler

Forward Thinking on funding a clean world with Ann Mettler

Co-host Janet Bush talks with Ann Mettler. Mettler is Vice President, Europe, at Breakthrough Energy, working on cleantech innovation in pursuit of a net-zero-emissions future. Before her current role, she worked for many years in European public policy. She was head of the European Political Strategy Center, the in-house think tank of the European Commission, from 2014 to 2019. In this podcast, she covers topics including the following: Investing for climate impactThe challenges in Europe’s clean energy technological ecosystemUseful innovation beyond new productsThe new priority of energy security accelerating the net-zero transitionSee www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Forward Thinking on the recipe for Asia’s success story with Justin Yifu Lin

Forward Thinking on the recipe for Asia’s success story with Justin Yifu Lin

Co-host Janet Bush talks with Justin Yifu Lin. Lin is dean of the Institute of New Structural Economics, dean of the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development, and professor and honorary dean of the National School of Development at Peking University. He served as chief economist at the World Bank from 2008 to 2012, and he actually took up his World Bank position after serving for 15 years as professor and founding director of the China Center for Economic Research at Peking University. In this podcast, he covers topics including the following: What is new structural economics?How can emerging economies catch up?Is globalization going into reverse?Will the economies of China and Asia maintain momentum?See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Forward Thinking on how to live with our longer lives with Andrew J. Scott

Forward Thinking on how to live with our longer lives with Andrew J. Scott

Co-host Janet Bush talks with Andrew J. Scott. Scott is professor of economics at London Business School; his work focuses on the economics of longevity. He's co-founder of the Longevity Forum and a member of the World Economic Forum's Council on Healthy Aging and Longevity, topics that are very much the focus of the McKinsey Health Institute. His book The 100-Year Life has sold more than a million copies in 15 languages. In this podcast, he covers topics including the following: What benefits could greater longevity offer to economies?Redefining retirementWhat could be done to help people live healthier for longerSee www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Forward Thinking on avoiding another false dawn for Africa and finally seizing the continent’s potential with Carlos Lopes

Forward Thinking on avoiding another false dawn for Africa and finally seizing the continent’s potential with Carlos Lopes

Cohost Janet Bush talks with Carlos Lopes. He is a professor in the Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town. He’s also an affiliate professor at Sciences Po, Paris, an associate fellow in the Africa Program at Chatham House, and a member of the African Union reform team. Lopes was the policy director for UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and executive secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa. He serves as an advisor on MGI’s research on Africa, including our latest report, which discusses the continent’s human capital and natural resources and how they can help to accelerate productivity and reimagine Africa’s economic growth. His views are his own. In this podcast, he covers topics including the following: The factors constraining Africa’s potentialThe promise of AI for AfricaThe threat and opportunity of climate change for AfricaSee www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Forward Thinking on bringing the joy to economics with Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers

Forward Thinking on bringing the joy to economics with Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers

Cohost Michael Chui talks with Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, both professors of public policy and economics at the University of Michigan. They cover topics including the following: Subjective well-beingHow the labor market has evolved since the pandemicA decline in inequalityThe potential impact of AIWhy write a new economics text book?See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Forward Thinking on the brave new world of generative AI with Ethan Mollick

Forward Thinking on the brave new world of generative AI with Ethan Mollick

Co-host Michael Chui talks with business professor Ethan Mollick. He is an associate professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Mollick covers topics including the following: What is generative AI?How substantial are the performance improvements workers can gain from using generative AIHow to use human management skills to get better results from generative AIWhat generative AI means for the future of work and trustWhat he learned when he made the use of generative AI mandatory in his classesSee www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Forward Thinking on the rollercoaster of central banking with Hans-Helmut Kotz

Forward Thinking on the rollercoaster of central banking with Hans-Helmut Kotz

Co-host Michael Chui talks with economist Hans-Helmut Kotz who is a visiting professor of economics at Harvard University, a senior policy fellow at the Leibniz Institute for financial research at Goethe University, Frankfurt, and on the economics faculty of Freiburg University. Kotz covers topics including the following: Parallels between the 2007–09 global financial crisis and today’s financial turbulence.The balance that banking regulators need to strike to protect the economy but encourage innovation.Being prepared by taking eclectic perspectives.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Forward Thinking on people on the move and the technological progress and productivity they bring with Dany Bahar

Forward Thinking on people on the move and the technological progress and productivity they bring with Dany Bahar

Co-host Janet Bush talks with economist Dany Bahar. He is an associate professor of practice of international and public affairs at Brown University’s Watson Institute and a senior fellow of the Growth Lab at the Harvard Center for International Development. He’s also a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution and the Center for Global Development. Two themes stand out in his work: the diffusion of technology and knowledge, and migration. In this podcast, Bahar covers topics including the following: Why some countries are rich and some are poorThe role of people on the move in spreading knowledge and raising productivityThe opportunity of Ukraine’s refugee diasporaHow companies can reap rewards by integrating migrantsSee www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Forward Thinking on ‘megathreats,’ ‘polycrises,’ and ‘doom loops’ with Nouriel Roubini

Forward Thinking on ‘megathreats,’ ‘polycrises,’ and ‘doom loops’ with Nouriel Roubini

Co-host Michael Chui talks with Nouriel Roubini. Roubini is professor emeritus of economics at the Stern School of Business at New York University, and CEO of Roubini Macro Associates, a global macroeconomics consultancy. He covers topics including the following: The “mother of all” debt crises and what to do about itLikely future trends in the global balance sheet—the world’s economic health and wealthThe trajectory of globalizationWhich “megathreat” worries him mostSee www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Forward Thinking on working at the interface of the environment and business with Justin Adams

Forward Thinking on working at the interface of the environment and business with Justin Adams

Co-host Michael Chui talks with Justin Adams. Adams is the head of partnerships at Just Climate, a climate-led investment business. he answers questions, including: How does nature or the ecosystem provide services to the economy?How much needs to be invested in nature?What role can capitalism play in addressing issues around sustainability?What kind of innovations have real potential to mitigate carbon emissions?See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information