On Fareed Zakaria GPS

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Insights, analysis and must reads from CNN's Fareed Zakaria and the Global Public Square team, compiled by Global Briefing editor Chris Good

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September 22, 2024

On Today's Show

On GPS, at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET:

Was the Federal Reserve right or wrong to cut interest rates by half a percentage point this week? Either way, Fareed says, the important thing is that the US has tamed inflation, and the Fed has been a big part of that story.

Sure, the central bank has made mistakes along the way, Fareed says. But it has reacted to economic challenges in recent years with serious analysis—and without allowing America's supercharged politics to influence decisions. The US economy has fluctuated since the pandemic, but it remains the envy of the world in many ways. Independent, nonpartisan economic management is crucial to that kind of success, Fareed says.

After that, Fareed has a wide-ranging interview with former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has just published a new book, "Something Lost, Something Gained: Reflections on Life, Love, and Liberty." Fareed talks with Clinton about the presidential race, the economic policies being offered by Democrats and Republicans, the war in Gaza, and how her very public marriage works today after almost 50 years.

Finally, next week world leaders will flock to New York City, causing traffic mayhem as the UN General Assembly convenes its annual meeting. With major problems facing the world, including wars in Gaza and Ukraine, Fareed talks with UN Secretary General António Guterres about the difficulties of solving them—and what role institutions like the UN Security Council can play.

Progress Stalls for the Poor

The world economy has been roundly criticized for its inequality in recent decades, but as Fareed has pointed out before, the standing of the world's least fortunate has been an important bright spot in the era of globalization. Since 1990, more than 1 billion people have been lifted out of extreme poverty, the UN notes.

Disturbingly, that trend has stalled out, The Economist writes in its current issue: "[E]xtreme poverty has barely fallen since 2015. Measures of global public health improved only slowly in the late 2010s, and then went into decline after the pandemic. Malaria has killed more than 600,000 people a year in the 2020s, reverting to the level of 2012. And since the mid-2010s there has been no more catch-up economic growth. Depending on where you draw the line between rich and poor countries, the worst-off have stopped growing faster than richer ones, or are even falling further behind. For the more than 700m people who are still in extreme poverty—and the 3bn who are merely poor—this is grim news."

The magazine suggests a few causes. For one, low-income countries have leaned into trade restrictions. The neoliberal economic doctrine touted by Western countries since the 1980s has been "watered down," but no "big idea" has been offered as a replacement. "A new generation of fast-growing countries might have picked up the slack were it not for a series of shocks," the magazine writes. "The covid-19 pandemic was a disaster for all countries, but particularly those in the developing world. Interest-rate rises that followed, to bring down inflation, proceeded to squeeze budgets and drag on investment. Climate change adds to the pressure, as does an increase in the number of conflicts around the world. Coups and corruption remain big problems."

Russia's Arctic Creep

The Arctic Circle has seen often-overlooked geopolitical competition in recent years. Resources are up for grabs. As ice melts, new sea lanes could open for shipping.

In a recent New Yorker article, Ben Taub writes of a trip to northern Norway and sizes up counterintelligence operations. The scene opens with an abnormally large number of Russian shipping vessels docked in a remote Norwegian port—and the suspicions they prompt. Taub notes an odd uptick in African and Middle Eastern migrants crossing from Russia over Norway's Arctic border. Uncertainty and shadow warfare are throughlines.

Looking beyond the Arctic Circle itself, Taub writes of the broader context of Russian gray-zone operations: "For the past few years, civilian life in northern Norway has been under constant, low-grade attack. Russian hackers have targeted small municipalities and ports with phishing scams, ransomware, and other forms of cyber warfare, and individuals travelling as tourists have been caught photographing sensitive defense and communications infrastructure. Norway's domestic-intelligence service, the P.S.T., has warned of the threat of sabotage to Norwegian train lines, and to gas facilities that supply energy to much of Europe. A few months ago, someone cut a vital communications cable running to a Norwegian Air Force base."