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Paradox

World economy 21st February 2014

The IMF Wants More Prosperous Grasshoppers in Spain

WASHINGTON |By Pablo Pardo | The “paradox of thrift” that Keynes made famous is something as simple as this: if everybody works and saves, nobody will prosper. Nobody can endlessly produce unless someone else buys those products. This is what the IMF has demanded of Spain—more consumption. And, in order to achieve it, more credit. That means more transparent banks and less dividends, but also an ECB with a more accommodative stance in monetary policy.

Chinese businesman

World economy 20th February 2014

Ending the Nightmare of Private Sector ‘Crime’ in China

BEIJING | Op-ed by Wang Yong via Caixin | Private business owners in China are, out of desperation, breaking laws under a legal system that China must reform. An entrepreneur who has no basic rights guaranteed may fawn on political elites because this is probably the only way to guarantee personal safety. We could call that the private sector’s “crime of necessity.”

Parques Reunidos buy Australian water park

World economy 20th February 2014

Lagarde pleads for cooperation before Sydney G20’ s meeting

WASHINGTON | Via IMF’s Staff | Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors will meet on the Australina city  on February 22-23. The IMF’ s staff has prepared a note as an anticipation of the event. The institution says the recovery is still weak and significant downside risks remain, thus further action and cooperation are needed to promote financial stability and robust economic upturn.

No Picture

World economy 20th February 2014

European Hunger Games: The Threat of Importing Deflation From Emerging Markets

By David Denton via The Richter Scale | For anyone who was growing up in the 1970s there is a short list of things that one has to be concerned about:  The music of The Bay City Rollers, the instant pudding – “angel delight”, playing rugby against the Welsh and inflation. Although the oil price shocks affected all industrialised economies inflation had a particularly severe impact on the UK, we quickly became known as the sick man of Europe.

Phelps

World economy 19th February 2014

Edmund Phelps: “Clientelism is the essence of social protection”

MADRID | By Luis Martín via Truman Factor| Last summer, Director of the Center on Capitalism and Society and winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Economics, Edmund Phelps, published “Mash Flourishing: How Grassroots Innovation Created Jobs, Challenge, and Change,” a book that analyzes the value system and intrinsic forces driving prosperity in market capitalism. Though a ‘book on Economics,’ Phelps’ latest work offers an insightful journey through modern Western economic history with an emphasis on philosophy, culture and the arts; a journey in which the author illustrates how a culture of innovation serves as the grassroots dynamism that propels “mass flourishing” in free market societies.

Now Investment

World economy 18th February 2014

It’s Time To Look For Investment!

MADRID | By Luis Alcaide | Globally, investment in relation to sales figures are at their lowest level in the last 22 years, even though there is a huge amount of liquidity all over the world. What is the problem then? Crystal clear: money is not flowing and therefore growth cannot be reactivated.

GDP varios

World economy 17th February 2014

Euro zone, Spain and Japan: a 0.3% GDP’s rise with different meanings

MADRID | By Julia Pastor | Last week it was picking season. The euro zone as a whole as well as several member coutries such as Germany, France or Greece and other core economies beyond the region like Japan reported their GDP growth in the end quarter of 2013. Both the euro area and Japan increased by 0.3%, curiously the same that Spain expanded in the same period. As European registers are a reason for content, Asian country’s mean a disappointment.

No Picture

World economy 17th February 2014

FED: “Some questions do have answers”

SAO PAOLO | By Marcus Nunes | In his recent post at Econlog Scott Sumner writes “Questions that have no answers”: There are some questions that have no answers. One example is the question: “Was monetary policy too expansionary during the housing boom?” The only sensible answer is “it depends.” It’s not clear what the Fed was trying to do during this period.