2018 may be the year of the infrastructures. Perhaps it won’t be the best or the most efficient plan which emerges. But what’s clear is that something has to be approved which allows Donald Trump to cut the ribbons on motorways, bridges and other more or less large structures.
The trend in inflation is confusing those in charge of monetary policy. After a significant uptick in the last part of 2017, it has really stagnated, in stark contrast with the growing dynamism of the economy.
Benoit Coeure, a member of the European Central Bank (ECB) Executive Board, believes the renminbi will eventually become a major international currency. He also warns about the bitcoin bubble, reminding that the bitcoin is not a currency but a speculative investment.
How do I see the year 2018? Low growth and productivity, a declining working population, and an unsustainable rise in animal spirits. Everything comes to an end, and the longer it takes, the worse it is.
There’s an idea circulating amongst the central banks or, more accurately, amongst pressure groups in the central banks. The crux of this idea is: “the central banks should normalise interest rates”.
Nick Ottens via Atlantic Sentinel | I believe that to shrink the culture gap in Western democracies — between generally well-educated “globalists” and those who feel left behind — we need a new social compact.
Seat SA, the Spanish subsidiary of Volkswagen AG, will sell its China-made electric cars (EVs) under a different brand name in the country, sources familiar with the matter told Caixin.
In the IMF blog there is a brief view of how well the year has gone and the promises for the future which we can extract from this good performance. For me it’s proof of an excess confidence which in the past was a trap into which the markets systematically fell. But the IMF has to accept the rationalistic view that the markets don’t get it wrong, while I maintain they quite often make mistakes.
Just a week before the new year begins some analysts are saying that 2018 looks likely to be the best year for global synchronized growth since 2011. In fact, Laurence Boone from AXA IM thinks that inflation should return and supportive monetary policy progressively withdrawn. Is this all too good to be true?
Tasnim Nazeer | Cryptocurrency, or blockchain, is rapidly evolving around the world to cater for virtual peer-to-peer transactions using digital currency. Virtual money has made the daily business of life much easier for many of us, but can it help alleviate poverty in the developing world?