INFORM / ENGAGE / EMPOWER
Bermuda’s
think tank
Our members are Bermuda residents of diverse ethnic, social and professional backgrounds and national origins who are committed to promoting Bermuda’s development in more sound, sustainable and equitable ways.
Latest news
RG Article: Call for Infrastructure Blueprint
A blueprint for the funding of major projects to boost job numbers and the economy should be a priority. Read the original article in the Royal Gazette
Royal Gazette on the 24th July event at BUEI
Economist Robert Stubbs will give a public presentation on how the island’s economy can be rejuvenated. Read the original article in the Royal Gazette
BUEI Event – 24th July coverage by BerNews
A public presentation entitled Building an Economic Roadmap to Bermuda’s Future is being offered by Robert Stubbs on Wednesday [July 24] at 6.00pm in the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute’s Tradewinds Auditorium. Read the original article in BerNews
What is a
think tank?
In very general terms, a think tank produces ideas and new knowledge in service to a particular cause. The cause SEED serves is Bermuda’s sustainable development. The ideas and useful knowledge we produce are derived from economic, social and environmental research we conduct in service to this cause.
Why does
Bermuda need
a think tank?
As many Bermudians are well aware, long before the coronavirus visited our shores the island had entered a period of long-term economic decline. In fact, in recent decades Bermuda’s reversal of fortune has been so extreme that we risk achieving the rare distinction of transitioning from what economists term a “growth miracle” to a “growth disaster.”
For think tanks such as SEED Bermuda, the extremely rare case of wildly changing fortunes such as ours presents unusually rich research opportunities. The useful knowledge gained from close examination of our circumstances offers real hope of significantly improved conditions for the unfortunate locals caught in the daily grind of long-term economic decline.
Could Bermuda be the next Argentina?
A Cautionary Tale
Growth miracles and growth disasters in themselves are unusual. Growth rates in countries recognised as “growth miracles”, such as China today, eventually slow. Trees don’t grow to the sky and extraordinary levels of growth can’t persist forever.
But while their growth invariably slows to more normal levels, growth miracles are not known suddenly to go into reverse. Former economic juggernauts don’t usually find themselves caught in the grips of an economic depression that persists inexplicably for decades. The extraordinary case of a country transitioning from growth miracle to growth disaster is exceedingly rare.
Of course, such events have occurred in ancient history in places like Greece and Rome and even China. But while numerous empires have been eclipsed in the modern era, there is only a single case in the past 200 years of a country fully transitioning from growth miracle to growth disaster – that would be the unfortunate circumstances of Argentina post World War II.
Having achieved astonishing rates of growth throughout much of the 19th and early 20th centuries, Argentina unexpectedly entered a period of relative stagnation which persists to this very day.
