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Corruption

World economy 24th February 2014

To Fight Corruption, Understand its Dynamics

As there is no perfect model or even a template for democracy, one cannot avoid the realities that underlie the role of corruption in any country — realities which must be dealt with for transparency to become a national value. “Affecting all EU Member States, corruption costs the European economy around €120 billion per year.  Corruption undermines citizens’ confidence in democratic institutions and the rule of law; it hurts the European economy and deprives States from much-needed tax revenue”, Cecilia Malmstrom, EU commissioner for Home Affairs, has recently stated.

 

G201

World economy 24th February 2014

G20 delivers growth on paper

MADRID | By J.P. Marín Arrese | Will the Sidney growth strategy fly? Germany and the ECB have voiced open scepticism on its merits. So long as growth continues to gain momentum, they is little chance surplus countries might revamp domestic demand in a co-ordinated effort for anchoring recovery. They will put into practice the well-seasoned “wait and see” strategy.

US labour costs

World economy 21st February 2014

The Report Everyone Forgot About

NEW YORK | A guest post by Benjamin Cole via Historinhas |The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks “unit labor costs,” and back on February 6, they came out with their latest report.  Usually I look for this report, but this time I missed it. The news? We are in deflation, when it comes to labor costs.

Paradox

World economy 21st February 2014

The IMF Wants More Prosperous Grasshoppers in Spain

WASHINGTON |By Pablo Pardo | The “paradox of thrift” that Keynes made famous is something as simple as this: if everybody works and saves, nobody will prosper. Nobody can endlessly produce unless someone else buys those products. This is what the IMF has demanded of Spain—more consumption. And, in order to achieve it, more credit. That means more transparent banks and less dividends, but also an ECB with a more accommodative stance in monetary policy.

Chinese businesman

World economy 20th February 2014

Ending the Nightmare of Private Sector ‘Crime’ in China

BEIJING | Op-ed by Wang Yong via Caixin | Private business owners in China are, out of desperation, breaking laws under a legal system that China must reform. An entrepreneur who has no basic rights guaranteed may fawn on political elites because this is probably the only way to guarantee personal safety. We could call that the private sector’s “crime of necessity.”

Parques Reunidos buy Australian water park

World economy 20th February 2014

Lagarde pleads for cooperation before Sydney G20’ s meeting

WASHINGTON | Via IMF’s Staff | Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors will meet on the Australina city  on February 22-23. The IMF’ s staff has prepared a note as an anticipation of the event. The institution says the recovery is still weak and significant downside risks remain, thus further action and cooperation are needed to promote financial stability and robust economic upturn.

No Picture

World economy 20th February 2014

European Hunger Games: The Threat of Importing Deflation From Emerging Markets

By David Denton via The Richter Scale | For anyone who was growing up in the 1970s there is a short list of things that one has to be concerned about:  The music of The Bay City Rollers, the instant pudding – “angel delight”, playing rugby against the Welsh and inflation. Although the oil price shocks affected all industrialised economies inflation had a particularly severe impact on the UK, we quickly became known as the sick man of Europe.

Phelps

World economy 19th February 2014

Edmund Phelps: “Clientelism is the essence of social protection”

MADRID | By Luis Martín via Truman Factor| Last summer, Director of the Center on Capitalism and Society and winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Economics, Edmund Phelps, published “Mash Flourishing: How Grassroots Innovation Created Jobs, Challenge, and Change,” a book that analyzes the value system and intrinsic forces driving prosperity in market capitalism. Though a ‘book on Economics,’ Phelps’ latest work offers an insightful journey through modern Western economic history with an emphasis on philosophy, culture and the arts; a journey in which the author illustrates how a culture of innovation serves as the grassroots dynamism that propels “mass flourishing” in free market societies.