Iceland: growth, sound(er) economy ≠ popularity
A short aside to those who think it’s only the economy, stupid – well, at least this is not the case in Iceland.
World economy
The secret room of the TTIP
BRUSSELS | In an attempt to win the public opinion battle, the European Commission has established an alternative judicial system to deal with cases between private investors and states. The previous investor-to-state dispute settlement (ISDS) had been widely criticised for favouring big corporate interests.
Refugees, War and Our Future
By Veena Trehan | The refugee crisis is an opportunity to support the stateless and set up the necessary infrastructure in a world of unprecedented climate challenges. We turn our attention to Europe, compelled by shocking images of refugees’ deaths. To the stories of the stateless having identification numbers written on them and told their trains are headed to safety, rather than camps.
Lehman’s Mythical Fall Seven Years On: Banks With Higher Balances, But Working
Lehman Brothers’ collapse became a milestone representing the official start of the ongoing long economic crisis. Subprime mortgages had failed years before, then afterwards the crisis fuelled different situations such as the European bail-ins. Today marks seven years after the event. The risk from “too big to fail entities” remains.
“We need to abandon this moralistic view on debt”
South Korean economist Ha-Joon Chang argues that although orthodox thinking is to cut debt, the most effective way for countries to grow is to boost their income. As for the recovery, this expert in emerging markets notes that the world economy is not really picking up in the way that it usually does after a big downturn. This is the first part of our conversation.
It Is Time to Redraw the World’s Economic Map
By Peter Lundgreen via Caixin | The turmoil on world financial markets has more to do with global changes that need to be noted than recent volatility in China’s stock exchange.
The Fed should act now
The Fed’s wavering over addressing the matter of its announced rate hike has badly affected the markets, increasing their volatility. It should act now, curbing any further speculation, and disregard recent calls from the IMF and the World Bank to further delay this move.
Disinflation-felt locally, spread globally
UBS | Monetary policy remains stimulative globally, and labor markets are tightening. Yet, global inflation is low.
Australia Tries to Find ‘Balance’
Being one of the very few countries (two others are Poland and Israel) whose monetary policy managed to avoid a recession on the heels of the 2008-09 crisis, Australia is a natural object of Schadenfreude!
When Machines Think for Themselves: the AI Threat
A future in which machines are more intelligent than humans still seems the realm of science fiction. Just trying to use the voice search function on your smartphone might suggests this is the case, and that machines won’t be dominating the world for a long time to come.