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World economy 30th January 2014

‘Sanhattan’, Latin America’s new place for business

By LATAM CORRESPONDENT David Brunat | Santiago de Chile is taking off as a regional business pole, and the district of Sanhattan -a word game mixing Santiago and Manhattan- is its Mecca. More than a hundred multinational and Latin American companies are housed in this district, including HSBC, KPMG, Shell and Mexico’s Claro, making Santiago one of the best cities in the region to do business, along with Sao Paulo, which has four times its population.

France colonialism

World economy 30th January 2014

France’s 19th Century Foreign Policy Fails in 2014

President Francois Hollande faces the question of whether Paris should have intervened in the CAR, where a significant percentage of the country’s citizens view France’s intervention as a form of 21st century neo-colonialism. France was clearly naïve to believe that deploying fewer than 2,000 troops to a destabilized nation bordering on anarchy and awash with arms would restore stability.

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World economy 29th January 2014

U.S.: It’s Time to Raise Wages

WASHINGTON | By Alan Smith via The Next New Deal | Anchor institutions like universities and hospitals have the power to establish a living wage and a stronger economy. President Obama plans to sign an executive order requiring workers under federal contractors to be paid at least $10.10 per hour. This move was be a key point in Tuesday’s State of the Union, and folks across the United States will benefit in very real ways. [NOTE: Temporal references have been edited since the piece was written on Monday.]

Bolsas emergentes

World economy 29th January 2014

Not all emerging countries are the same

MADRID | By Francisco López | Argentina’s devaluation contagion pulled downwards such different assets as Brazil Stock Exchange, Argentinian or South African currency , or even Indonesia’s bonds. In Spain, the Ibex fell again by 1.1% losing 6.7% points in just six days, which means its hardest time in past twelve months. When panic spreads, investors do not consider each countries’ economic circumstaces individually.

Fed

World economy 28th January 2014

“Backtesting”

SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes | Five years ago, the former Treasury official who created the “Taylor Rule,” a formula for rate- setting based on the outlook for inflation and growth said that “the Federal Reserve may soon need to raise interest rates”. Five years later, economist Scott Sumner affirmed that “promising year after year of near zero rates is like promising year after year of sub-par nominal growth”. Five years on the “winning prediction” is obvious.

mexico

World economy 28th January 2014

In Mexico no one trusts the economy

MEXICO CITY | By David Brunat | It is possible to be one of the world’s major emerging markets, a country called to deeply influence the global economy in the next decades, and at the same time be seen by your own people as a very unreliable nation business and invest wise. This is Mexico, the internally less trusted country in the whole OECD.

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World economy 28th January 2014

Stock markets plunge

MADRID| By J.P. Marín Arrese | Buenos Aires acted in the right way by bridging the gap between its currency real value and the fake official quote. Yet, in doing so, it has openly exposed the emerging countries’ vulnerability. For the last years, their expansion delivery showed an outstanding record harnessed by cheap money conditions and renewed risk appetite, once the financial crisis looked firmly under control.

Earnings seasons

World economy 27th January 2014

Earnings season, or the art of managing expectations

WASHINGTON | By Pablo Pardo | We are, again, in the midst of an earnings season. But, should we call it ‘earning season’ or ‘earnings exceed the forecast session’? Because companies tend to earn more than they expected, and also more than the markets’ forecast. Another nail in the coffin of the Efficient Market Hypothesis?

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World economy 24th January 2014

Argentina’s Peso devaluation “bites the bullet” without a full set of teeth

NEW YORK | By JP Morgan’s Foreign Exchange team | A devaluation unanchored (at least so far) by a needed broader anti-inflation plan can only induce expectations of further devaluation in Argentina (if the government is effectively adopting a free-float) or a resumption of reserve loss (when and if the government intends to subsequently resume its Foreign Exchange intervention).