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World economy 15th June 2014

Special Issue: Nigeria, the giant against the ropes (I)

MADRID | By Donato Ndongo-Bidyogo | Its oil reserves – 15.6 billion barrels, 2.5 million exported daily – and gas (three million cubic meters) make Nigeria the leading African economy, outperforming South Africa. A notable industrial potential, petrochemicals and cinema industries stand out: Nollywood released more than 7,000 movies in the last decade, just surpassed by India (Bollywood) and ahead of the USA (Hollywood).

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World economy 13th June 2014

Do you live in a bubble?

MADRID | The Corner | It’s not only about China or the US. Housing prices are well above their historical averages in many countries such as Poland, Turkey or Brazil. And that could mean big trouble for those economies, some of which need to assess their lack of capacity, like the UK. This time the EU’s peripherals are following the opposite trend, with home prices falling 7% in Greece, 6.6% in Italy and 5% in Spain in 2013. The graph shows home prices’ y-o-y evolution in 4Q13.

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World economy 13th June 2014

Japan’s “growth strategy”

LONDON | By Kyohei Morita and Yuichiro Nagai at Barclays | The Abe administration is currently aiming to reach a Cabinet decision on its new growth strategy and “big bone” economic and fiscal reform plans around end-June. The discussions are far-reaching, but from the perspective of market participants, we believe there are four near-term focal points: 1) corporate taxes; 2) labor market reforms; 3) reforms to the pension system, including the Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF); and 4) special national strategy zones. Here we focus on corporate taxes, likely the only subject of concrete discussion for the markets in June.

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World economy 11th June 2014

Renewables in Europe triple US’ investment in shale gas

MADRID | The Corner | Head of Economics at the International Energy Agency remarked that “the investment in renewables in Europe has tripled the US’ investment in the entire shale gas production.” Prices are 20% below the right level to recover the cost of new investments due to the existence of overcapacity and subsidised prices in renewables.

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World economy 9th June 2014

Apple Buys Beats: Desperation or Opportunity?

What does Apple’s acquisition of Beats Electronics mean for the music streaming market? Apple’s $3 billion purchase of Beats Electronics was an uncharacteristic move for a company that has typically limited its acquisitions to small start-ups.

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World economy 9th June 2014

NSA: Online surveillance is easy and it is cheap

WASHINGTON | By Pablo Pardo | It has been one year since, out of the blue, Edward Snowden came out to tell everybody that the Internet is ‘supervised’ by the NSA. And it has been only four days since British giant Vodafone announced that at least six different governments tap its calls. We have lost our online virginity, in case there were still some who had it (apparently, there were). Now we know that the wandering around Internet is almost as private as yelling in the middle of the street.

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World economy 8th June 2014

China: Investing in the future

BEIJING | By Andy Xie via Caixin | Stimulus proposals won’t transform the economy in China, but spending on industrial research, building megacities and globalizing the white collar labor force will.

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World economy 7th June 2014

Monetary policy- the way we were (without revisionist history)

SAO PAULO | By Benjamin Cole via Historinhas | Sadly for Americans, the Fed of 2008 would pull out the 50-year-old playbook and repeat the mistakes of the Fed of the 1950s. Rattled by minor increases in prices, the 2008 Fed stomped on the brakes, bringing on the Great Recession from which the nation has yet to fully recover.