Time to end private credit creation?
LONDON | by Alex Biddle | A British Investment Bank would not stop boom and bust as such, but would be able to ensure that productive businesses get credit in the most difficult of times.
World economy
Investors, Latin America’s Pacific Alliance is here to stay
MADRID |By Carlos Álvaro at Capital Madrid | Latin America’s Pacific Alliance is meeting this week in Colombia. For Spain, it might be a gateway to Asian markets that could bring some hope in times of crisis. Many analysts also consider it “the new Brazil”, the best option for foreign investors who want to enter the juicy Latin American market.
Visa, Mastercard ask justice to rule their rates legal
MADRID | By Irene Matías | The world’s largest payment networks asked a federal judge in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan to rule that their practices for setting fees paid by merchants who accept credit and debit cards aren’t anticompetitive. Large retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores, Starbucks and Gap refuse any settlement and may bring additional lawsuits against the payment networks. But on top of all of this the real loser are the consumers.
China-Germany relations: dream team or pipe dream?
Angela Merkel refuses to levy tariffs of 47% on Chinese solar panel imports because she fears damaging China-Germany relations and being shut out of its market. However, in Ray Kwong’s view, Berlin is too dependent on China’s economic engine, which could crack anytime due to territorial conflicts, too-rapid expansion of credit, lax environmental oversight, widening discontent among the population and many other legitimate problems.
Who’s talking about human cloning?
VALENCIA | By Lucía Sapiña | Recent research has reopened the ethical debate on the limits of science and the mostly feared possibility of human cloning.
Tariffs on Chinese solar panels: another EU members’ bicker
A new dispute among EU members has arisen. This time is not an austerian versus keynesian brawl but a shall-we-punish-Chinese-dumping one. Next week the Commission will decide whether to impose big tariffs to the $27 billion worth of solar panels that China sells to Europe each year. In this battle over how to respond to Beijing trade practices, will domestic interests prevail?
Asia Rising: A New Competitive Landscape
By Ray Kwong | Broad strokes, when you’re talking about the 21st century possibly becoming the Asian Century, one thing becomes crystal clear: it’s not preordained and it’s not just all about China. With its varied cultures and emphasis on education, self-reliance and upward mobility, Asia may overtake the West as the world’s economic engine.
Oklahoma tornado costs: huge and polemic
NEW YORK | By Ana Fuentes | The last huge tornado in Oklahoma could cost as much as 2 billion dollars. The center of the state has been devastated, 24 people dead, around 13,000 homes destroyed, cars and schools totally ruined. The final bill for the State, the regional government and private insurers is going to be one of the highest in US history.
Against the Eurocrisis: more monetary ammunition, more reforms
BARCELONA | By Jordi Gual, economist | The euro area’s double dip recession is due to inopportune management of the sovereign debt crisis and slow advances towards European integration.
Robert Skidelsky: “Can we afford the economy to deteriorate even further?”
WASHINGTON | By Pablo Pardo | Robert Skidelsky: “There are technical economists in finance that had told us again and again that 2008-like ‘accidents’ were simply impossible. What connections do they have to the investment industry?”