Today, many people, and, of course, an active part of the society of Azerbaijan are interested in the possible options for the development of the world economy. The Institute of Global Economic Problems is carefully studying the opinion of prominent international figures in the field of economics. Great interest was caused by the report of Harvard University professor Lawrence Summers at the investment forum in Russia.

According to the report, the Obama administration has taken significant steps to maintain the financial sector and the country's economy, and the result is evident. The US economy is still growing, although not so fast as before; unemployment is high. But in recent months, more and more positive statistics . It is assumed that GDP growth will exceed the consensus forecast of 3 percent for 2011 and give an additional stimulus to the global economy.

What will commenters say in 100-200 years about our time? Some today believe that the end of the Cold War. Professor of Harvard University Lawrence Summers believes that the rise of emerging markets, in particular in Asia, will also be remembered. During the industrial revolution of the 19th century, for the first time in the history of mankind, the rise in standards of life became possible to see during the lifetime of one person. At the end of the 19th century, the developing country of the United States took the dominant place in the world, and the improvement of living standards was observed in one generation - 20-25 years. Nowadays, this happens in 1 decade. In China, these standards are growing at 7 percent per year, that is, they will double every 10 years.

How the rise of these countries will affect all aspects of life in the world, in the economy in the markets - this will be the story of our time.

Two parts of the world: the older, slowly growing, technologically advanced, you can call it the center. Periphery can be called a younger, rapidly growing, technologically worse developed part of the world.. Where will the capital go? From the center to the periphery .

The process of production of goods is increasingly becoming relatively inexpensive, in particular, because it can be broken down into pieces, which will be implemented by different economic agents. The relatively more expensive and important part of the world economy have become the opportunity, the ability to come up, develop, understand what services and goods people need, how to make it for them. Examples - Google, Facebook . And if you can take raw materials and use innovations to turn it into something more productive and necessary, it essentially raises its price and level of well-being.

A significant part of economic activity will be related to services, and this process is promoted by information technology.

The process of innovation: you try many things, many fail, some succeed, and winners appear. It is necessary to give people the opportunity to win: stimulating innovation, taxes, good conditions for attracting capital. Innovative clusters are needed, where all sides of the innovation process converge.

The most important choice that society makes is how does it take care of its future? How will it attract and allocate capital to stimulate this activity? And financial institutions play an important role here, and will continue to play.

Touching the question of the fate of the dollar, Summers cites as an example the computer keyboard or the English language, which all use, despite any changes in technology and the world. Everyone uses the dollar. It is difficult to see what an alternative to the dollar can be. In the 1980s, it seemed that this could be the yen, but after 20 years of rapid economic growth, Japan fell into stagnation. They thought that this could become the euro, but in recent years in the eurozone everything is not so smooth. Yuan? China still does not allow converting the yuan, restricting the movement of capital. China may soon become the largest economy in the world, but even at that time it will have the per capita income a quarter of the US. Speaking about the dollar, I would remember the words of Mark Twain: "The rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated."