The new head of the Federal Reserve: Dove ascendant … Janet Yellen will stick to her predecessor's expansionary policies … an uphill slog awaits. For most of the past few years, monetary policy has urged the economy on while dysfunctional fiscal policy has held it back. Barack Obama's decision to nominate Janet Yellen to succeed Ben Bernanke as the Fed's chairman in Februar...Read More
Breaking BRIC piggy banks … Since 2009 the word "austerity" has not been too far away from the lips of finance ministers across the globe. Deficits and debt-to-GDP ratios around the world surged due to the financial crisis, and it was felt that they were fast becoming unsustainable. Once the immediate danger of the global recession passed politicians across the globe rushed to redu...Read More
Debt Ceiling: China Calls for World to Be 'De-Americanised.' Chinese government mouthpiece says 'Pax Americana' has failed on all fronts … Xinhua calls for de-Americanised world. China's official news agency has called for the creation of a "de-Americanised world", saying the destinies of people should not be left in the hands of a hypocritical nation with a dys...Read More
World top bankers warn of dire consequences if U.S. defaults … Three of the world's most powerful bankers warned of terrible consequences if the United States defaults on its debt, with Deutsche Bank chief executive Anshu Jain claiming default would be "utterly catastrophic" … "This would be a very rapidly spreading, fatal disease," Jain said on Saturday at a co...Read More
Debt Ceiling: China Calls for World to Be 'De-Americanised.' Chinese government mouthpiece says 'Pax Americana' has failed on all fronts … Xinhua calls for de-Americanised world. China's official news agency has called for the creation of a "de-Americanised world", saying the destinies of people should not be left in the hands of a hypocritical nation with a dys...Read More
World top bankers warn of dire consequences if U.S. defaults … Three of the world's most powerful bankers warned of terrible consequences if the United States defaults on its debt, with Deutsche Bank chief executive Anshu Jain claiming default would be "utterly catastrophic" … "This would be a very rapidly spreading, fatal disease," Jain said on Saturday at a co...Read More
A bomb attack Sunday morning derailed a train used by Colombia's biggest coal producer Cerrejon to transport goods to Puerto Bolivar reports Reuters.Cerrejon did not say how long the railway that carries more than 30 million tonnes per year will be out of commission but port exports and mining operations would continue.It is the third such bomb attack on Cerrejon infrastructure - a joint ventur...Read More
Obama's national debt rate on track to double … President Obama likes to say that raising the nation's borrowing limit "won't add a dime" to the federal debt, but he neglects to mention that the government already has borrowed the equivalent of more than 60 trillion dimes since he took office. When Mr. Obama became president in January 2009, the total federal debt stood...Read More
UK fracking ambitions threatened by EU warning over methane emissions. The EU authorities have opened a new front in efforts to clamp down on shale gas, warning that the carbon footprint from methane emissions may be high enough to call into question the whole future of fracking in Europe. – UK TelegraphDominant Social Theme: Without Brussels, would the world burn up?Free-Market Analysis: Th...Read More
Obama's national debt rate on track to double … President Obama likes to say that raising the nation's borrowing limit "won't add a dime" to the federal debt, but he neglects to mention that the government already has borrowed the equivalent of more than 60 trillion dimes since he took office. When Mr. Obama became president in January 2009, the total federal debt stood...Read More
UK fracking ambitions threatened by EU warning over methane emissions. The EU authorities have opened a new front in efforts to clamp down on shale gas, warning that the carbon footprint from methane emissions may be high enough to call into question the whole future of fracking in Europe. – UK TelegraphDominant Social Theme: Without Brussels, would the world burn up?Free-Market Analysis: Th...Read More
Factional conflicts have the power to destroy empires – and republics … Bitter fights in Washington are making the US economy look much worse than it is. The US Founding Fathers abhorred factions. The 10th Federalist Paper by James Madison in 1787 is a study of how to defend the fledgling republic against the dangers of organised zealotry, the curse that blighted earlier republics in w...Read More
Why I'm Very Happy About Janet Yellen … President Barack Obama plans to nominate Janet Yellen as the next chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. In doing so, he will promote the pre-eminent policy economist of her generation to the role of the most powerful central banker in the world. Yellen is quite simply more qualified for the job than any of her predecessors … Tonight, I feel...Read More
Factional conflicts have the power to destroy empires – and republics … Bitter fights in Washington are making the US economy look much worse than it is. The US Founding Fathers abhorred factions. The 10th Federalist Paper by James Madison in 1787 is a study of how to defend the fledgling republic against the dangers of organised zealotry, the curse that blighted earlier republics in w...Read More
Why I'm Very Happy About Janet Yellen … President Barack Obama plans to nominate Janet Yellen as the next chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. In doing so, he will promote the pre-eminent policy economist of her generation to the role of the most powerful central banker in the world. Yellen is quite simply more qualified for the job than any of her predecessors … Tonight, I feel...Read More
Carter: Middle class today resembles past's poor…Former President Jimmy Carter said Monday that the income gap in the United States has increased to the point where members of the middle class resemble the Americans who lived in poverty when he occupied the White House.Carter offered his assessment of the nation's economic challenges Monday at a Habitat for Humanity construction sit...Read More
Britain must stay in the EU, says Nissan boss … Carmaker says threat of European Union import tariffs could be an "obstacle" for Nissan if Britain exits the single market. Nissan employs 6,400 people at the Sunderland car plant … One of the UK's most important foreign investors, the Japanese car-giant, Nissan, has said that Britain's membership of the European Union...Read More
Carter: Middle class today resembles past's poor…Former President Jimmy Carter said Monday that the income gap in the United States has increased to the point where members of the middle class resemble the Americans who lived in poverty when he occupied the White House.Carter offered his assessment of the nation's economic challenges Monday at a Habitat for Humanity construction sit...Read More
Britain must stay in the EU, says Nissan boss … Carmaker says threat of European Union import tariffs could be an "obstacle" for Nissan if Britain exits the single market. Nissan employs 6,400 people at the Sunderland car plant … One of the UK's most important foreign investors, the Japanese car-giant, Nissan, has said that Britain's membership of the European Union...Read More