Stephen Chan | Bernard Henri Levy, the French intellectual and provocateur, recently said that, in the wake of the US withdrawal into itself, the world stage would feature five empires. These would be Russia, Iran, Turkey, Islamic extremism and the commercial might of China.
There are still divergences between the monetary policies of the Fed and the ECB. But if Draghi meets expectations for progressive withdrawal of the stimuli from September and rate hikes in the first few months of 2018, a new “currencies war” is not on the cards in the near future.
Despite the chaos of the Trump administration, prices have reached the Fed’s target. The announced “tapering” is complicated because if the central bank is not careful rates could shoot up more than necessary.
Richard N. Cooper via Caixin | Shortly after the U.S. presidential election, and well before the Jan. 20 inauguration, I speculated about the impact on China if then-President-elect Donald Trump translated his campaign slogans (and tweets) into policy.
So-called ‘soft’ data, such as strong sentiment indicators and survey levels for the US economy, have raised the debate whether the real economic indicators ahead – the so-called ‘hard’ data – will be able to fulfil the expectations created, or whether they will instead disappoint and lead to market unrest.
By Zhang Yiqing via Caixin | Against the backdrop of the world’s excess liquidity, the Belt and Road initiative offers infrastructure construction opportunities that provide investment returns while also generating economic value and social benefits.
Capitalism – or in fact any economy, if an alternative exists – should grow constantly, although not necessarily in quantity. It’s not so much about making a larger amount of exactly the same products and services, but about innovating and producing new goods and services at a lower cost.
Enric Fernández (Caixabank) | The forecasts of the vast majority of analysts and international organisations point to an acceleration of global GDP growth in 2017. At CaixaBank Research we are predicting a growth rate in real terms of 3.4%, three tenths of a percentage point above last year. The improvement will be extensive for all the advanced economies (which we expect to grow 2%) as well as for the emerging markets (+4.5%)
Steve Keller via Atlantic Sentinel | Last week, I wrote about Donald Trump’s soft support among Republicans. Democrats already strongly disapprove of his bigotry, buffoonery and right-wing ideology. In order to dip down to Nixonian or Bush ’43 levels — high 20s, low 30s — he will have to lose support from conservatives and Republican-leaning independents.
There are some who consider it is the best safe-haven asset there is, which would never lose value even if the world went bankrupt. We are talking about gold and its infinite qualities, which have made it the most coveted precious metal. But have you ever asked yourself why gold is really so valuable?