Top Stories

World economy

No Picture

World economy 28th September 2014

Economic growth is not enough

By the RSA | Two-thirds of the world’s population live in countries that are now more unequal than they were in 1980. Our politicians are hung up on keeping the economic growth curve rising. But does GDP really tell us all we need to know about a country’s wealth and well-being? In this Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) Short, Kate Raworth makes a powerful argument to look beyond economic growth alone for a true measure of prosperity and progress.

economic stagnation

World economy 25th September 2014

USE-ME to avoid secular economic stagnation

SAO PAULO | Benjamin Cole via Marcus Nune’s Historinhas | Well, if a Martin Wolf can call for permanent QE by all Western governments, and if a John Cochrane can suggest the U.S. Federal Reserve should completely liquidate the U.S. national debt, than I guess my USE-ME program is worth trotting out as well. I mean anything goes these days, no?

No Picture

World economy 25th September 2014

ECB buying sovereign bonds: why it doesn’t make sense for Spain

MADRID | By Julia Pastor | Mario Draghi has been saying he doesn’t rule out a sovereing debt QE: he reminded it at Jackson Hole, then at the European Parliament and in a euro summit in Lithuania on Thursday.  Markets are discounting those eventual state debt’s purchases. But do they make sense? Although the eurozone does not have a liquidity problem, analysts remind that the US didn’t either, and yet half of the QE3 went into govies.

china growth

World economy 25th September 2014

China: It’s either pure growth or rebalancing

MADRID | The Corner | As markets continue to worry about China’s slowing growth, an increasing number of observers believe that Beijing is at a crossroads. Chinese authorities have a decision to make: should they choose  to simply focus on the numbers or to increase quality? According to a Morgan Stanley analyst on Thursday, it is a case of “either-or” for the Asian giant’s. With the country highly leveraged and its economic imbalances also coming into focus, the time appears to have arrived for the Chinese to plot a definitive roadmap for the way ahead.

No Picture

World economy 24th September 2014

US economy likely to stay buoyant despite corrections

Guest post by Jean-Sylvain Perrig, UPB Chief Investment Officer | The US economy is back on track. Its second-quarter bounce was sharper than previously thought and it is expected to stay on a reasonably good path of 3% in the coming quarters, thanks notably to a rebound in capex, a falling unemployment rate and a sharp improvement in the real estate sector. That will further boost consumer confidence, which has already reached its highest level in seven years.

No Picture

World economy 24th September 2014

Britain betrays Hong Kong… again

The British government has failed to condemn China for breaking its promise of greater democracy in Hong Kong. If you were told the Chinese government — an unelected, one-party state — will decide who you can vote for, what would your response be? Not only would you likely object, you would expect others, especially democracies, to loudly condemn the idea. But Britain has done just the opposite to the people of Hong Kong, when it failed to call China out for breaking its promise of greater democracy for the island territory.

alibaba

World economy 22nd September 2014

Alibaba’s big deal

BEIJING | By Caixin | E-commerce giant Alibaba Group’s huge initial public offering in New York has stirred the market. Raising US$ 25 billion in total after the company and some of its shareholders sold extra shares, Alibaba’s IPO now ranks as the biggest ever.

putin

World economy 17th September 2014

Barking at Russia is Easy, Biting is Not

Bungling with Russia over Crimea will send the West knocked out with a bloody nose. One way or another, it was a crisis a long time coming. Europe has arguably sleepwalked into a reluctant confrontation with Russia. The continent’s next-door behemoth of a neighbor, saddled by a man it secretly detests the most, is also its largest energy supplier, irascible trading partner and purveyor of most maladies diplomatic.

deflation

World economy 13th September 2014

Deflation can be “good” or “bad”, it depends

SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes | I do not want to question the likely bad effects that come about owing to a large unexpected deflation (or inflation).  What I want to question is whether a period of prolonged moderate (and presumably expected) deflation is necessarily associated with periods of depressed economic activity. Most people certainly seem to think so. But why?