EU leaders set for crucial budget summit … European Union leaders are due to begin a two-day summit in Brussels to try to strike a deal on the next seven years of EU spending. High EU expenditure at a time of cutbacks and austerity across the continent is the main issue dividing the 27 member states. They failed to reach a compromise at a similar summit last November. The BBC's Europe ed...Read More
IMF: Central banks must be responsible for financial stability … Financial stability should become a core central banking objective alongside monetary policy, although potential conflicts between the two functions might require some institutional redesign, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said. The IMF noted in a study that although central banks had delivered low inflation, they had fa...Read More
Afghan economy better than expected, says IMF … In 2013, the economy will continue to grow and inflation is expected to be stable. An IMF report, released on Monday, noted that a large crop has boosted real GDP growth to 12 per cent and helped moderate inflation, which was 6pc year-on-year in December 2012. The IMF team reached staff level understandings with the authorities on a path to com...Read More
Can local currencies help advance global sustainability? Local financial systems that put people and the environment at their heart are welcome, but can these new models be truly scaled? Local currencies can encourage shoppers to buy local, purchasing their goods at nearby shops and markets … By definition, they can be exchanged for goods only in a limited region. So why participate? The cor...Read More
IMF: Central banks must be responsible for financial stability … Financial stability should become a core central banking objective alongside monetary policy, although potential conflicts between the two functions might require some institutional redesign, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said. The IMF noted in a study that although central banks had delivered low inflation, they had fa...Read More
Afghan economy better than expected, says IMF … In 2013, the economy will continue to grow and inflation is expected to be stable. An IMF report, released on Monday, noted that a large crop has boosted real GDP growth to 12 per cent and helped moderate inflation, which was 6pc year-on-year in December 2012. The IMF team reached staff level understandings with the authorities on a path to com...Read More
Can local currencies help advance global sustainability? Local financial systems that put people and the environment at their heart are welcome, but can these new models be truly scaled? Local currencies can encourage shoppers to buy local, purchasing their goods at nearby shops and markets … By definition, they can be exchanged for goods only in a limited region. So why participate? The cor...Read More
On January 24, 2013, state-owned company Kazatomprom announced that the uranium production in the Republic of Kazakhstan amounted to 20.9 ktU in 2012 (excluding data from the Stepnogorsk mining and processing facility).This means that Kazakhstan remained the world's largest uranium producer in 2012 with approximately 37% of global uranium production volume (55.7 ktU, according to Kazatomprom's pre...Read More
Annual income of richest 100 people enough to end global poverty four times over … Leaders must aim to bring down global inequality at least to 1990 levels … An explosion in extreme wealth and income is exacerbating inequality and hindering the world's ability to tackle poverty, Oxfam warned today in a briefing published ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos. "We can no l...Read More
Cantons begin to see downside of low tax rates … For years they fought to offer the lowest tax rates but now some cantons in central Switzerland are questioning the wisdom of this rampant tax competition as the population boom that came with it weighs more heavily on local resources. The paradise that is central Switzerland is as much natural as it is fiscal: glassy lakes, snowy peaks, untou...Read More
Annual income of richest 100 people enough to end global poverty four times over … Leaders must aim to bring down global inequality at least to 1990 levels … An explosion in extreme wealth and income is exacerbating inequality and hindering the world's ability to tackle poverty, Oxfam warned today in a briefing published ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos. "We can no l...Read More
Cantons begin to see downside of low tax rates … For years they fought to offer the lowest tax rates but now some cantons in central Switzerland are questioning the wisdom of this rampant tax competition as the population boom that came with it weighs more heavily on local resources. The paradise that is central Switzerland is as much natural as it is fiscal: glassy lakes, snowy peaks, untou...Read More
Keystone pipeline decision to languish until mid-June-US source The Obama administration's decision on the Keystone XL oil pipeline will not be made until at least June, a U.S. official said, which would delay the project for months and frustrate backers of Canada's oil sands. "We're talking the beginning of summer at the earliest," said the source, who did not want to be ide...Read More
Commentary … The Age of Neo-Feudalism: A Government of the Rich, by the Rich, and for the Corporations … The pomp and circumstance of the presidential inauguration has died down. Members of Congress have taken their seats on Capitol Hill, and Barack Obama has reclaimed his seat in the White House. The circus of the presidential election has become a faint memory. The long months of deb...Read More
Keystone pipeline decision to languish until mid-June-US source The Obama administration's decision on the Keystone XL oil pipeline will not be made until at least June, a U.S. official said, which would delay the project for months and frustrate backers of Canada's oil sands. "We're talking the beginning of summer at the earliest," said the source, who did not want to be ide...Read More
Commentary … The Age of Neo-Feudalism: A Government of the Rich, by the Rich, and for the Corporations … The pomp and circumstance of the presidential inauguration has died down. Members of Congress have taken their seats on Capitol Hill, and Barack Obama has reclaimed his seat in the White House. The circus of the presidential election has become a faint memory. The long months of deb...Read More
A new survey from the Pew Research Center finds the nation is increasingly distrustful of the federal government: 73 percent don't have faith that lawmakers – members of Congress in particular – will do the right thing. Judy Woodruff asks Andy Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center, for more details and historical context. – PBS NewshourDominant Social Theme: This has bee...Read More
Global Leadership Vacuum: Europe Incapable, America Unwilling … The Exhausted Nation … US Vice President Joe Biden is visiting Germany this week in an effort to strengthen trans-Atlantic ties. Global politics have come to a standstill in recent years, with the United States unwilling to show leadership and Europe and other major powers unable to fill the vacuum … Biden might stil...Read More
A new survey from the Pew Research Center finds the nation is increasingly distrustful of the federal government: 73 percent don't have faith that lawmakers – members of Congress in particular – will do the right thing. Judy Woodruff asks Andy Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center, for more details and historical context. – PBS NewshourDominant Social Theme: This has bee...Read More
Global Leadership Vacuum: Europe Incapable, America Unwilling … The Exhausted Nation … US Vice President Joe Biden is visiting Germany this week in an effort to strengthen trans-Atlantic ties. Global politics have come to a standstill in recent years, with the United States unwilling to show leadership and Europe and other major powers unable to fill the vacuum … Biden might stil...Read More