BEIJING | By Pu Jun via Caixin | Party’s intention to let market set certain prices seen as creating room for progress to be made in areas like electricity reform. References in a document released after a major meeting of Communist Party leaders to letting market forces set certain prices have given experts hope that progress on electricity-industry reforms can be made.
By Ray Kwong | China’s embarrassingly ineffective anti-corruption campaign re-enters the spotlight as a damning New York Times investigative report reveals that JPMorgan secretly employed the daughter of former Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, the leading figure behind Beijing’s economic policy. Chinese government officials have long been “praised” for their skills to ensure their family’s futures, with some saying their collective efforts equal at least 3 percent of China’s GDP.
MADRID | By Julia Pastor | The Fed and the ECB launched their unconventional monetary policies starting from different positions as their economies’ financial structures are not the same. Also their forward guidance diverged, but both central banks tried to boost the real economy and were effective. The uncertainties about the future would revisit those similarities and contrasts.
SHANGHAI | By Hu Shuli at Caixin | In an interview, Shanghai party leader Han Zheng describes the painstaking steps that preceded the Shanghai FTZ’s recent launch.
NEW YORK | By Ana Fuentes | Thursday was Janet Yellen’s big day. In front of the Senate Banking Committee she ran through her prepared speech (released by the Fed on Wednesday) and acknowledged “the risks” of injecting QE steroids to the U.S. economy for too long. However, she argued, inflation is still too low and unemployment rate, too high. “The benefits exceed the costs” of the Fed’s current policies, she said. Will we see any tapering soon? Certainly, but not yet.
LISBON | By Diário de Notícias via Presseurop | The International Monetary Fund (IMF) believes that austerity measures taken until now are sufficient to fulfill the deficit targets set for this year and the next, but anticipates more cuts for 2015, writes Diário de Notícias.
SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes | It is encouraging that Obama may soon have to fill up to 5 slots in the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. Maybe it´s expecting too much that he´ll think that´s a very important thing to happen at times like the present. He´s already ‘failed’ in a previous instance when he had 3 slots to fill, leaving them open for a long time and even failing to get an appointee approved! The low quality of some recent Fed Governors is glaring.
SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes | Professor of Economics James Hamilton reviews new research on “Summarizing monetary policy.” He talks about the existence of a “shadow” short-term interest rate in the U.S. economy that might in some circumstances be quite negative.
MADRID | By Adrianna Rodriguez* | The past year has been rocky for the United States, to say the least: Edward Snowden released the most significant leak in recent history; German leaders now think twice about their after hours phone calls, and the US spent about $24 billion on a national tantrum. It’s simpler to say that the country has finally lost all credibility in European eyes, however, that’s not necessarily the case. How is it that Washington can go through all this nonsense and still appear on top?