Putin might miss Eurovision
MADRID | By Álex García.
In the World
Fed kicks can down the road
SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes | That’s the image that came to mind when I saw this chart from Bank Paribas that Binyamin Appelbaum reproduced in his post [see above].
Fiware: EU’s challenge to build the future Internet
SEVILLE | By Ana Fuentes | When it comes to innovation and data management the U.S. is the absolute global leader. But Brussels wants to make up for many years of sitting on its hands: the cake is too yummy to allow Amazon or Google to eat it all. Fiware, a tech platform born from a public-private partnership, aims to finance an open ecosystem for SMEs to develop innovative projects. The budget for the best ideas is 100 million euros, way less than the American big firms are investing. But Spanish entrepreneurs eager to leave the crisis mood behind insist it’s worth to give it a try.
The labor market in Canada and in the US
SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes | David Andolfatto has an interesting take: “The question is this: Would you expect the labor market in the U.S. border states to look more like the Canadian labor market or more like the U.S. labor market?”
Russia, an Italy with 8,500 atomic bombs
WASHINGTON | By Pablo Pardo | According to the IMF, Russia and Italy have about the same nominal GDP, though, if you adjust it to its purchase parity power, the Russian economy may be 50% greater than Italian. Still, Russia has two and a half times the population of Italy, which explains why its nominal GDP per capita is half of Spain’s (even in real terms, Spaniards are 60 percent richer than Russians). So, Vladimir Putin has managed to achieve for its country a global importance that, taking its economy into account, it does not deserve.
Why Monetary Expansion Is Not Enough
MADRID | By Luis Arroyo | Journalist Paul Krugman recently published an illuminating article by Samuelson about the (in)efficiency of the monetary expansion by its own when the liquidity trap has been reached. It is a very clear explanation about the problem of the money: central banks don’t create money if banks don’t want to give credit.
Do conspiracy theories make any sense?
MADRID | By Álex García.
China: Omnipresent Scarcity
China is reaching a crucial point in which both the Communist Party and the citizens must define what they want to be and in which direction they want to move. The human costs of three decades of rampant growth are huge and the country is facing pressing challenges such as environmental pollution, deep social inequalities and weak employment opportunities. It may be time for China to start figuring out the puzzle of allocating resources in a country of 1.3 billion people.
Macroeconomic theory is not the best analystical framework for making monetary policy decisions!
SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes | That’s plainly absurd. But maybe it’s what you should expect if the Fed narrows down its focus of analysis to a “corner of the room (inflation) which has already been ‘cleaned-out’”.
China: Eyes on the Prize
BEIJING | By Andy Xie via Caixin | Poor economic data in China will make the short-sighted howl, but policymakers know it is really a sign of rebalancing – and raising per capita incomes.