Lagarde Says Globalization’s Benefits Need to Be Shared by All

World leaders need to better manage the frustration over the failure of globalization to deliver widely shared benefits, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said. While the world has enjoyed unprecedented economic progress over the last 70 years, the transformation has caused “dislocation and hardship,” Lagarde said in the text of a speech to be delivered Tuesday in Toronto. “Growing inequality in wealth, income, and opportunity in many countries has added to a groundswell of discontent, especially in the industrialized world — a growing sense among some citizens that they ‘lack control,’ that the system is somehow against them,” Lagarde said. History has shown that closing borders and increasing protectionism isn’t the solution, she said. Instead, countries need to extend the benefits of openness and integration, while alleviating the side effects, Lagarde said. “We need to make globalization work for all.”