Worldwide military expenditure increased by just 0.3 percent from 2010 to 2011, compared to annual average increases of 4.5 percent between 2001 and 2009, said a study published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on Tuesday.
The United States’ five largest banks, who have been deemed as “too big to fail” by some analysts, are now bigger than they’ve ever been before, according to a report by Bloomberg on Monday.
What nerve the eurozone has. On one hand, it prides itself as a highly successful and integrated sovereign currency bloc that lives within its means. Yet, at the same time, eurozone members vehemently insist that the IMF is obliged to support debtor nations within the Union. European policymakers need to realize that they cannot have it both ways, and the eurozone needs to stop blackmailing the IMF, whose obligation lies with the wider international community.
A quick preview of the key economic events for the upcoming week:
Last week, China announced that its economy grew a disappointing 8.1 percent in the first quarter of 2012, a figure that was lower than what officials and analysts had expected. This week, China announced it would widen the yuan’s trading band, as it aims to create a fully flexible and convertible exchange rate regime. How will this affect China’s growth and trade balance, and on a wider scale, its global trading relationships?
The Chinese yuan fell sharply against the dollar in early Monday trade, after Beijing widened the currency’s trading limits. According to Beijing, the move will make the yuan more market-oriented as the country seeks to gradually liberalise its exchange-rate regime.
On Saturday, China’s central bank made the announcement that it will widen the yuan’s daily trading band against the dollar to 1 percent, up from the previous 0.5 percent.
With the announcement, the yuan on Monday dropped to its lowest level against the dollar in almost three months.
Organisers of the upcoming London Olympics have expressed concern over alleged “sweatshops” in Indonesia after an exposé by The Independent revealed that Indonesian factory workers had been working more 65 hours a week, for less than $0.60 per hour, to produce outfits for British athletes and volunteers participating in the world’s biggest sporting event.
The European Union may set new caps on bankers’ bonuses for all its member nations in its upcoming set of bank capital rules, claimed a report by the Financial Times on Thursday.
Visitors to the Colosseum in Rome on Thursday witnessed a live “battle” erupt before their eyes, after dozens of Roman centurion impersonators began fighting with Italian police officers inside the ancient monument – after a protest against a government ban on their work.
China’s economy is grossly imbalanced, and for years many academics have been talking about an imminent rebalancing. For now, it is clear is that China’s rebalancing act will not be automatic. Rich as China may be, weaknesses in China’s economic model will constrain the options Beijing can take. But the bigger question is, does China have the political will to address this problem?
Three of China’s largest Internet companies have vowed to end all “rumours” about the Chinese government from spreading online, claimed a report by Reuters on Tuesday, as the government continues to crack down on the web following widespread rumours of a coup.
