The ongoing depreciation of currencies in advanced economies has forced several emerging countries to empty their foreign reserves in order to maintain exchange rates. Is this policy sustainable in the long-term; and why are countries willing to fix their exchange rates despite the risk of their reserves running dry?
Americans under the age of 35 are taking on less debt obligations than before the financial crisis, showed a study by the Pew Research Center on Friday, highlighting the efforts taken by young adults to curb spending amid one of the longest recessions in U.S. history.
U.S. house prices have risen for the past year, provoking calls that the market has stabilised; But American investment broker Peter Schiff – the famous ‘Dr Doom’ who accurately predicted the 2007 crisis – says the correction is temporary and he predicts big falls to come as the U.S. economy stagnates and interest rates rise.
The European Union has failed to seal a deal on the Basel bank rules, reported Bloomberg on Wednesday, after members disagreed on how far to go in curbing bankers’ bonuses, with negotiations to continue next week.
Despite rhetoric last week that there had a “clear majority” supporting caps on bankers’ pay, negotiations broke down due to stiff opposition from Britain, home to the region’s financial capital.
While media attention at the recent G-20 summit focused on the foreign exchange market and the possibility of ‘currency wars’, something far more important was developing in Moscow: The real news from the G-20 meeting is the formal beginning of a process that could very well lead to the largest substantial change in the international corporate tax system in almost a century.
Britain’s tax agency should name and shame individuals and companies who use legal loopholes to avoid paying tax, said a UK spending watchdog, warning that the taxman is losing the “game of cat and mouse” to elaborate tax avoidance schemes.
According to the UK’s Public Accounts Committee, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is missing out on approximately £5 billion ($7.8 billion) a year because the taxman is failing to crack down on “morally wrong” tax avoidance schemes.
In 2012, we saw the end of what some call the first stage of the global financial crisis. Most of the deepest problems have been identified and market reforms are underway to ensure that economic imbalances reverse themselves. But whether the imbalances reverse in an orderly or disorderly manner will depend on political decisions, decisions that will set the stages for future growth or future stagnation.
Barely two weeks remain before $1.2 trillion of automatic budget cuts are triggered should US politicians fail to reach a deal on the so-called sequester. Over in Europe, elections take place in Italy at the end of the week, where polls show anti-austerity Silvio Berlusconi only narrowly losing out to Pier Luigi Bersani’s centre-left Democratic Party.
Monday, February 18
Prime Minister of Mali, Diango Cissoko, visits the European Commission in Brussels for talks on his country’s humanitarian situation.
Chinese consumers rang in the Year of the Snake by spending over 539 billion yuan ($86.3 billion) from Lunar New Year’s eve until the 6th day of the Chinese New Year, showed data from the Ministry of Finance on Sunday, marking a 14.7 percent increase from the same period last year.
The finances of the British Royal Family may come under scrutiny by the government later this year, reported The Guardian last week, after a group of MPs challenged the tax exemptions enjoyed by the monarchy, particularly those of Prince Charles, the heir to the throne.
