An inopportune trade deficit for Japan
Japan has lost exports steam. Its current account surplus has fallen from 20.7 trillion yen to 4.4 trillion yen in five years since 2007.
World economy
Wednesday’s graph: wait until next summer for growth in Italy, Spain
The recessions in the periphery of the euro zone are likely to affect GDP growth expectations for the entire monetary union, at least, during the rest of the year.
Germany’s boom is wreaking the country
FRANKFURT | Public pensions will be cut down by 2 percent, leaving many retired workers with less than €600 a month. That is under the minimum wages deemed sufficient in the country. Shocked? Don’t be. Look behind the picture of a wealthy Germany.
Bernanke despises inflation horror tales
Will inflation rise in the US? That is the expectation of investors. Is it due to the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy? You bet. But, economist Luis Arroyo concludes, eggs end up broken when making an omelette. Or when a central bank stimulates employment.
Bernanke just broke down austerity barriers
Economist Luis Arroyo tells his colleagues not to feel outraged because the Federal Reserve’s latest monetary policies make an expansionary impact on European markets, too. It is unavoidable.
The US: a country of financially illiterate investors
WASHINGTON | A troublesome unknown-unknown: how unaware are US investors of their illiteracy in financial matters? Rumsfeld, Iraq and the capital markets have something very obscure in common, says Pablo Pardo.
Milking the wealthy the British way
LONDON | Law-abiding citizens are happy, the government boasts about it and fiscal fairness rule over the land. But what does a £500-million extra tax bill collected from the wealthiest since 2009 says about the UK?
Fed’s meeting and ruling on ESM, crucial rendez-vous
Morning! There’s a lot of event risk this week. Among things investors will be looking up are the Federal Reserve’s meeting and German Constitutional Court ruling about the legality of the European Stability Mechanism. It’s not that the court will rule against the ESM, but it could attach conditions that would make it react slowlier. “Investors are likely to keep focusing on the ECB’s plan as a roadmap, which it’s…
Drought’s billionaire impact
Food prices have spiked so high in August that many people around the developing world are having troubles to feed themselves. In the U.S. meat has become a luxury for many and the Department of Agriculture expects beef and veal prices to rise as much as 4.5 percent this year, and as much as 5 percent in 2013. Livestock farmers are hurting and the pork industry is losing millions. The…
China, alone in the dark
BEIJING | The world was confident about China. She was expected to be the engine of growth of the world economy. The remedy against the bitterness that surrounds Western markets. The fear of a hard landing is part of the subconscious of many experts but there is still confidence that the second world’s economy will manage to land softly. Opinions are divided: Pessimists predict a greater slowdown within the following months….