Europe's Green Recovery … BRUSSELS – The need for clean energy has returned to the top of the global economic agenda … In his second inaugural address, US President Barack Obama discussed climate change more than any other issue, saying, "We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries." At the World Economic Forum in Davos...Read More
IMF is regaining trust … The International Monetary Fund has improved its image since the global financial crisis and should address member countries' long-standing criticism to build on the regained trust, according to an internal audit. With a call for temporary fiscal stimulus to avoid a collapse of the world economy in 2008-09, the Washington-based IMF was seen as breaking away from...Read More
U2 rocker Bono gave a TED talk in California this week addressing global poverty. But has the wealthy TED audience found what it's looking for? … If you want a living demonstration of American inequality, the details of this week's TED conference in Long Beach, California, might do the trick. TED is a non-profit which aims to spread good ideas, through conferences, projects and a vid...Read More
Europe's Green Recovery … BRUSSELS – The need for clean energy has returned to the top of the global economic agenda … In his second inaugural address, US President Barack Obama discussed climate change more than any other issue, saying, "We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries." At the World Economic Forum in Davos...Read More
IMF is regaining trust … The International Monetary Fund has improved its image since the global financial crisis and should address member countries' long-standing criticism to build on the regained trust, according to an internal audit. With a call for temporary fiscal stimulus to avoid a collapse of the world economy in 2008-09, the Washington-based IMF was seen as breaking away from...Read More
U2 rocker Bono gave a TED talk in California this week addressing global poverty. But has the wealthy TED audience found what it's looking for? … If you want a living demonstration of American inequality, the details of this week's TED conference in Long Beach, California, might do the trick. TED is a non-profit which aims to spread good ideas, through conferences, projects and a vid...Read More
5 Reasons the World Is Catching on to the Financial Transaction Tax … It has been more than 70 years since John Maynard Keynes wrote about the value of a financial transaction tax in "mitigating the predominance of speculation over enterprise in the United States." A financial transaction tax works by levying a miniscule fee on the estimated $2.9 trillion of daily financial activit...Read More
Deathbed of Keynesian Economics Will Be in U.K … The U.K. has produced notable economists over the years, but John Maynard Keynes, the guru of government intervention, was one of truly global significance. So it may be fitting that the U.K. will also become the deathbed of Keynesian economics. Britain has been following the mainstream prescriptions of his followers more than any developed na...Read More
Canadian Economy Tumble … Given the historical relationship between cross-border trade and global economic activity, report from the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis that world trade volumes seem to be consolidating but are within a hair's breadth of turning negative on a year-over-year basis suggests that another global downturn is on the cards. Weak economic data from Eu...Read More
CASH GRAB: Inactive bank accounts to be seized … The government will from May 31 be able to transfer all money from accounts that have not been used for three years into their own revenues. Households face losing up to $109 million from their family savings as the Federal government moves to seize cash from inactive bank accounts. After legislation was rushed through parliament, the governme...Read More
5 Reasons the World Is Catching on to the Financial Transaction Tax … It has been more than 70 years since John Maynard Keynes wrote about the value of a financial transaction tax in "mitigating the predominance of speculation over enterprise in the United States." A financial transaction tax works by levying a miniscule fee on the estimated $2.9 trillion of daily financial activit...Read More
Deathbed of Keynesian Economics Will Be in U.K … The U.K. has produced notable economists over the years, but John Maynard Keynes, the guru of government intervention, was one of truly global significance. So it may be fitting that the U.K. will also become the deathbed of Keynesian economics. Britain has been following the mainstream prescriptions of his followers more than any developed na...Read More
Canadian Economy Tumble … Given the historical relationship between cross-border trade and global economic activity, report from the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis that world trade volumes seem to be consolidating but are within a hair's breadth of turning negative on a year-over-year basis suggests that another global downturn is on the cards. Weak economic data from Eu...Read More
CASH GRAB: Inactive bank accounts to be seized … The government will from May 31 be able to transfer all money from accounts that have not been used for three years into their own revenues. Households face losing up to $109 million from their family savings as the Federal government moves to seize cash from inactive bank accounts. After legislation was rushed through parliament, the governme...Read More
Colombia, South America's largest coal producer, risks losing access to its main markets as mounting issues affecting major coal miners in the country have started to disrupt supply, reports local newspaper Vanguardia.Early this month, the nation's environmental licensing agency ANLA suspended Alabama-based Drummond Co.'s loading license at the port of Santa Marta, after the company spilled coal...Read More
Morning in America? U.S. economy poised to accelerate substantially by the end of the year, even if Washington goes forward with $85 billion in budget cuts scheduled to begin on Friday. Economists polled by Reuters this month predicted the economy will expand at a 2.8 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, up from the 1.8 percent rate expected in the first quarter, when higher tax rates enacte...Read More
How the Fed Could Fix the Economy—and Why It Hasn't … Quantitative easing (QE) is supposed to stimulate the economy by adding money to the money supply, increasing demand. But so far, it hasn't been working. Why not? Because as practiced for the last two decades, QE does not actually increase the circulating money supply. It merely cleans up the toxic balance sheets of banks. A...Read More
Energy revolution promises to transform East Africa … An energy revolution is taking place in East Africa as the price of solar technology tumbles and huge resources of geothermal steam beneath the Great Rift Valley start to be exploited, moves which have the potential to lift millions out of poverty and cut greenhouse gas emissions. – BBCDominant Social Theme: So much unexpected good...Read More
As for [Stephan] Kinsella's prediction that I won't debate him, I will walk through hell, if I have to, to debate him and chop up his defect laden anti-IP views. – Robert WenzelDominant Social Theme: All Libertarians are cranks that hold the same rabid views.Free-Market Analysis: Well, here we have an example of two "big brains" – respected free-market commentators &n...Read More
Unsolicited advice for Jeff Zucker, CNN's new boss … As Zucker seeks inspiration for CNN, I can guarantee he won't devote himself to the 300-year history of the American newspaper. But he could do worse than to review the early decades of the 19th century, when most newspapers operated as adjuncts to the political parties, much as Fox and MSNBC have aligned themselves with the Republ...Read More