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The Corner
The Corner has a team of on-the-ground reporters in capital cities ranging from New York to Beijing. Their stories are edited by the teams at the Spanish magazine Consejeros (for members of companies’ boards of directors) and at the stock market news site Consenso Del Mercado (market consensus). They have worked in economics and communication for over 25 years.
Janet Yellen testimony

World economy 28th December 2015

A Free Market in Interest Rates

Keith Weiner via TrumanFactor | Unless you’re living under a rock, you know that we have an administered interest rate. This means that the bureaucrats at the Federal Reserve decide what’s good for the little people. Then they impose it on us. In trying to return to freedom, many people wonder why couldn’t we let the market set the interest rate. After all, we don’t have a Corn Control Agency or a Lumber Board (pun intended). So why do we have a Federal Open Market Committee? It’s a very good question.

Apple

Companies 28th December 2015

Can Apple Avoid Disruption? Yes, by Bending the User Need Curve Higher

UBS | A recent appearance on CNBC put us in the position of defending Apple’s uniqueness. Anchor Joe Kernen argued that the history of computing is one of disruption, so how could Apple’s stock ever be worth $1 trillion? Our price target has never reached $1 trillion, but the point remains that to be a successful investment Apple needs to grow to an unprecedented size based on sustained differentiation.

toreador

Spanish economy 28th December 2015

What Spain must do to improve growth quality

Emilio Ontiveros | The Spanish economy grew more than its European counterparts and current tailwinds such as low oil prices also favour it over the rest of the member states. But the country still has a lot to do to become a major league player.

china Soes

World economy 27th December 2015

A Gentle Nudge for Better Corporate Governance

Caixin | Last month, the G-20 summit held in Turkey endorsed the G-20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance. As a G-20 country, China is on board with the standards, too. That means Chinese companies, especially state-owned enterprises, must adhere to the principles.

digital market

World economy 25th December 2015

How Digitally Popular is Your Country?

Samantha North | The time is ripe for governments to start monitoring their digital reputation just as they monitor it in the real world. The Digital Country Index has been recently released for the first time. This new tool categorizes online search terms to form a picture of the world’s true levels of interest in countries.

dragon

World economy 23rd December 2015

The Dragon’s Tail: What Would A 4% China Do To World’s Markets?

UBS | Our base case forecasts for China’s growth are already below consensus at 6.2% for 2016 and 5.8% for 2017. In this note we study the impact on global economies and assets of a much darker and, in our view, extremely unlikely scenario where China real GDP growth slips to 4%, and nominal growth below 1.5%.

central banks1

World economy 22nd December 2015

Zombie Economics Will Never Die

Benjamin Cole via Historinhas | The tight-money crowd is dominant in central-bank staffs, and so firmly (and self-perpetuatingly?) ensconced in such independent government sinecures that they look likely to outlast all rivals. That tight-money enthusiasts preach an increasingly dubious religion or ideology—I have dubbed it Theomonetarism—is unimportant. They have allies in media and academia, curiously always on the right-wing side of things (with some exceptions, such as Ramesh Ponnuru at National Review, James Pethokoukis at AEI, and Scott Sumner, of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University).

The presence of state subsidiesincreased during the first years of the economic crisis

Spanish economy 22nd December 2015

Foreign investment in Spain up 42.9% in 9mths to September

The Trade Ministry released figures for foreign investment in Spain in the nine months to September, which showed a 42.9% year-on-year increase to 15.763 billion euros, excluding divestments. This good news coincided with a sharp fall in the IBEX 35 after the result of Sunday’s general elections.