America has typically relied on its domestic market for economic growth, with consumer spending accounting for some 70 percent of annual GDP growth. Given the strong likelihood that US consumers will remain weak for years to come, America’s growth agenda needs to focus on getting more out of the other 30 percent. But can this be done?
When Mario Draghi, chief of the European Central Bank, vowed to defend the euro last week, analysts went as far as to speculate a lowering of interest rates and bond purchases by the bank. Yet the bank disappointed yesterday, offering nothing but inaction.
Expectations for bold actions had run high after ECB President Mario Draghi on Thursday last week vowed to do “whatever it takes” to preserve the euro.
American athletes who win any medals at the ongoing Summer Olympics in London may have to pay hefty taxes upon their return, reported Bloomberg News on Thursday, with the cost of a single gold medal believed to be worth $8,986 in taxes.
The latest international data show that unaffordable food, pervasive unemployment, and dwindling social support threaten global recovery and the world’s population. Yet the world remains fixated on austerity and cost-cutting measures to boost recovery, which in turn has disproportionately affected the poor and put access to public goods and services under growing pressure.
China’s steel industry has seen its profits plummet by nearly 96 percent in the first half of the year, said a senior industry official on Tuesday, as demand for steel continues to shrink amid the global economic slowdown.
Zhang Changfu, the vice-chairman of the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA), had told reporters in Beijing that profit margins for Chinese steel companies had fallen to just 0.13 percent, compared to 3.06 percent a year ago; and that the total profits for the entire steel industry was now just at 2.39 billion yuan ($376 million).
Speculative bubbles, or market bubbles, have often been seen as the cause of financial crises. But, before we conclude that we should rein in the markets, we need to consider the alternative: that bubbles are actually social epidemics that could arise even in the absence of financial markets.
Thousands of South Korean students are rejecting the opportunity to secure lifetime jobs at the nation’s biggest companies in order to begin their very own technology start-ups, said a report by Bloomberg News on Tuesday, as more and more start-ups continue to spring up on the back of entrepreneur-friendly tax incentives and bank loans.
Throughout history, economists and policy makers have often clashed over the role of the government in the economy. Even today, this debate continues; but despite the realities of twenty-first-century technology and globalisation, it is still conducted largely as if governance and public policy were almost exclusively the domain of the nation-state.
The recessionary period following the 2008 financial crisis has often been compared to the Great Depression in 1929. But how do these two financial events actually compare?
Check out this infographic, which highlights and compares key economic metrics in the United States both during Great Depression and the so-called “Great Recession” that we’re experiencing now – including unemployment rates, bank failures and state spending.
Nearly 360 million residents in North India woke up to no electricity early Monday morning, reported Bloomberg News, after a massive grid failure in the capital of Delhi had cut off all power supplies, shutting down numerous transport networks in the process.
