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World economy 2nd April 2012

Euro zone unemployment 2.5% higher than in the US

LONDON | Jobless rates gave Monday a nasty reminder of an ongoing credit crisis whose effects seem to have depressed further the economies in the developed countries. The euro area (EA17) seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 10.8% in February 2012, compared with 10.7% a month earlier. It was 10.0% in February 2011. The EU27 unemployment rate was 10.2% in February 2012, compared with 10.1% in January. It was 9.5% in February 2011. The statistical…

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World economy 31st March 2012

Weekend read | It’s the democracy, stupid!: capitalism and equality

Gustavo Matías, in Madrid | State or capital markets, regulations or freedom, financials or the real economy,  equality or inequality, inclusiveness or mobility: these are some of the dichotomies that explain the present and future of capitalism. The debate has been lately reopened mainly in British soil, by the media big guns such as the Financial Times. However, major imbalances affect nowadays the whole of Europe or the emerging countries, where not enough…

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World economy 27th March 2012

Obamacare in Court: is it unconstitutional to imitate Europe?

NEW YORK | You are going to hear it more than often. It is called individual mandate: citizens required to purchase health insurance, or face a penalty. It is the Gordian knot of Obamacare, the new US Health law. And it is also the essence of both the Netherlands health system (it has been since 2006) and the Swiss (since 1994).  In that regard, the US is trying to imitate…

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World economy 27th March 2012

US corporate profits are Keynesian

By Luis Arroyo, in Madrid | In 2011, corporate profits in the US have been exceptionally high. According to the accounts of S&P 500 companies, or according to the national accountancy, business margins have risen more than ever before. However, the consensus on Wall Street says that they will continue to rise, so the PER rate (price per earnings) is still low: therefore, the stocks will go up like a shot. In…

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World economy 24th March 2012

Weekend | Obama chooses an unconventional candidate for the World Bank: will it calm developing countries?

NEW YORK | It could have been Hillary Clinton, one of the most well known US political figures; it could have also been Larry Summers, one of the most respected (and yes, also hated) figures in US economy; it may have even been Jeffrey Sachs, a very prestigious economist. But Obama has chosen a low profile candidate to the lead the World Bank: Jim Yong Kim, Dartmouth College president and…

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World economy 23rd March 2012

Game on: US healthcare hullabaloo

NEW YORK | Respected subscribers, my inbox is on fire. Democrat’s Campaign managers Jim Messina and Jen O’Malley, Vice President Joe Biden… even Michelle Obama wrote me in the last two days. It is clear. Unofficial, but clear: Democrats campaign is on. And everybody agrees the main theme is going to be… The Economy. But there is going to be a whole of juicy political battles surrounding another subject, one…

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World economy 22nd March 2012

Impact of euro crisis in the US economy

By Luis Arroyo, in Madrid | A lengthy series of the risk premium spread (over capital or liquidity) between US Treasuries and BAA corporate bonds tells us several things: 1) that each time there has been recession (gray areas) this premium has picked up markedly; 2) the time it reached the highest point was in the last recession, up to 6%; 3) the 60-year average of this spread is 1.8%; 4) the current figure…

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World economy 22nd March 2012

Tax havens are alive and well

By Carlos Cruzado, in Madrid | Although the concept has many nuances and definitions, when we hear about tax havens we all know what that means: areas that offer very favourable fiscal treatment for citizens and businesses in order to attract foreign money, which usually also implies a lack of control about the nature of such funds. While it is true that the existence of tax havens is a longstanding problem,…

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World economy 21st March 2012

Wednesday’s Spanish graph: late payments rate will approach 9.8pc by 2013

From Renta 4 analysts, a confirmation that late payments rate was 7.91pc in January, the maximum level seen by the Spanish financial sector since December 1994. And it was 8pc for the depositary entities. The increase in both cases has been the highest since February 2009, but the experts said today that they discard further acceleration. “During the next months, the situation should be stable and late payments rate is…

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World economy 21st March 2012

Why Geithner wants the EU to increase their firewall

NEW YORK | There has been a lot of anxiety in the US with the European crisis, no doubt of that. The New York Times has published an enormous amount of editorials (not counting Krugman’s op-eds) complaining about Merkozy not increasing the firewall enough to contain contagion from Greece and saying that they were not putting any measures in place to tackle the lack of growth in the southern countries….