16 August 2011.
There has been much concern about financial contagion between Europe and America. But the real problem stems from another form of contagion: bad ideas move easily across borders, and misguided economic notions on both sides of the Atlantic have been reinforcing each other.
15 August 2011.
Once more, famine stalks the Horn of Africa, where more than ten million people are fighting for survival, mainly pastoralist communities in the hyper-arid regions of Somalia, Ethiopia, and northern Kenya. But the current crisis could yet mark the start of regional recovery and development.
The loss of confidence in markets and leadership in key economies like the United States and Europe coupled with a fragile economic recovery have pushed markets into a new danger zone, something that policymakers have to take seriously, the chief of the World Bank said last Sunday.
Speaking at the Asia Society’s annual dinner in Sydney, Robert Zoellick said that the global economy was going through a “multi-speed recovery”.
European regulators will ban short-selling in four countries’ financial stocks from Friday in a co-ordinated effort to restore confidence in a market hit by rumours, higher borrowing costs and a steep rise in emergency financing. In a statement issued close to the end of the day, the European Securities and Markets Authority (EMSA) said Belgium, France, Italy and Spain were set to bring in the ban, which will vary in detail from country to country.
Last week, credit ratings agency Standard and Poor’s (S&P) downgraded U.S. debt from a stellar AAA rating by a notch to AA+. The move sent financial markets in panic mode as investors grappled and tried to comprehend the severity and extent of the United States’ ability to finance its bills.
The US media are full of ordinary Americans venting their rage these days at the incompetence and immaturity of their politicians. But the last-minute agreement to raise the debt ceiling is proof that the politicians did what they were sent to Washington to do: represent their constituencies and compromise in the interests of the country as a whole.
Foreign Direct Investment equity inflow into India in June this year rose by more than 310 percent from the same month last year, according to data released by the Indian Ministry of Industry Commerce on Monday.
The FDI recorded for June this year reached US$5.656 billion, compared to US$1.380 billion in the same month last year – and was the second highest monthly inflow ever recorded by the Indian economy in the last 11 years.
Do Americans care about the educational levels of their presidential candidates?
Four out of the five last presidential elections went to the candidate with the higher educational background.
So which Republican will run against Barack Obama next year and does he/she stand a chance?
A recurrent characteristic of Europe’s debt-crisis debate is a Latin American precedent. But, while many highly indebted Latin American countries conducted debt buybacks in the late 1980’s the most relevant experience with debt buybacks is a more recent and far less studied case: Ecuador in 2008.
