WASHINGTON | By PABLO PARDO | With Barack Obama’s popularity decline, those who are taking the lead are prosecutors. The Justice Department is using techniques that had usually been the domain of criminal investigations to pursue crimes on Wall Street.
NEW YORK | By Ana Fuentes | With the Syrian crisis dominating the G20 summit agenda, investors are expectant about the coming events and looking for the best plan. For many analysts oil is a better bet than sovereign bonds, since crude oil prices could jump more than 20 percent if a U.S. military strike drags other countries into the Syrian conflict.
BEIJING | By Andy Xie via Caixin Magazine | India and China, the elephant and the dragon, are entering a new chapter, and the main question they both face is whether they will reform before a crisis or after.
MADRID | By Luis Martí | Spaniards are not slim quite yet. Or that’s how the IMF’s last report sees it. While admitting that reforms have gone quite far, the IMF wants wage earners to run an extra mile. But there are a few reasons why the institution’s proposal doesn’t make the cut.
MADRID | By A.A. | Saint Petersburg, G20 summit. Forget fiscal havens and banking regulation: the only relevant issue seems to be the eventual operation in Syria. Should it take place before Saturday, many would regret it. The only positive collateral effect in the author’s view is that it would help Istambul to host the 2020 Olympic Games.
MADRID | By JP Marin Arrese | When G-20 leaders meet tomorrow, discussions will be exposed to bad feelings and deep-rooted bitterness. Since the Cold War relations between the US and Russian presidents had never sunk to such low levels of mutual understanding. The unilateral intervention in Syria is poisoning bilateral relations, Mr Putin considering it as sheer trespassing in his own backyard. His latest offer to envisage a green light should Damascus responsibility be fully substantiated amounts to a time buying tactic. Should the US rebuke this overture, it could lead to an open clash.
SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes | Unfortunately, there´s not much to celebrate on this Labor Day. I start by showing what to me is the most telling chart of all concerning the labor market and which I believe contains the “seeds of destruction” in so much as it destroys skills and the likelihood of a return to meaningful employment in the future.
BANGALORE | By Srikanth Vasuraj | Is India headed back to 1991 crisis? It’s true that the country’s economy is slowing to dangerously low levels, although for PM Manmohan Singh the rupee’s sharp decline is partly due to the U.S. Federal Reserve closing the liquidity tap. The author analyzes the main drivers of the world’s largest democracy.
By Ray Kwong | China is on course to surpass the United States and the EU as the world’s largest importer of oil as soon as October. According to a report issued by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the imminent emergence of China as the world’s largest net oil importer has been driven by steady growth in Chinese demand that outpaces energy consumption in the EU and increased oil production in the United States. It’s also a reminder that China’s largest oil fields are mature and production has peaked.
Denmark has the highest projected government spending as a percentage of GDP, with 58.4 percent. France and Austria also have notably high expenditure percentages, even above Nordic countries Finland and Sweden. Greece doesn’t have that high government spending after all with 48.3 it is around the average, according to Economics in Pictures.