Center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani has assessed options after failing in his attempt to find a way out of Italy's political deadlock and President Giorgio Napolitano Italy center-left says will now seek another solution. Napolitano's office said Bersani, who took the largest share of the vote but failed to win a viable majority, had told him his talks with other parties had ended withou...Read More
On thinning ice … Disappointing exports, stalled investment and fiscal austerity leave the overstretched consumer as Canada's only hope for growth … WHEN the world financial system collapsed in 2007, triggering a global recession, Canada recovered faster than any of the other members of the G7 group of large developed countries. Its banks remained solid, while low interest rates en...Read More
Can India become a great power? … India's lack of a strategic culture hobbles its ambition to be a force in the world … Nobody doubts that China has joined the ranks of the great powers: the idea of a G2 with America is mooted, albeit prematurely. India is often spoken of in the same breath as China because of its billion-plus population, economic promise, value as a trading partne...Read More
Why Fed hawks and doves are both starting to talk about ending QE … Inside the Federal Reserve, consensus is growing over the need to dial back the central bank's $85-billion-dollar-a-month bond-buying program — but for very different reasons. It boils down to two sides: Hawks, who want to curtail quantitative easing programs because of the risks they create. And doves, who see evi...Read More
Center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani has assessed options after failing in his attempt to find a way out of Italy's political deadlock and President Giorgio Napolitano Italy center-left says will now seek another solution. Napolitano's office said Bersani, who took the largest share of the vote but failed to win a viable majority, had told him his talks with other parties had ended withou...Read More
On thinning ice … Disappointing exports, stalled investment and fiscal austerity leave the overstretched consumer as Canada's only hope for growth … WHEN the world financial system collapsed in 2007, triggering a global recession, Canada recovered faster than any of the other members of the G7 group of large developed countries. Its banks remained solid, while low interest rates en...Read More
Can India become a great power? … India's lack of a strategic culture hobbles its ambition to be a force in the world … Nobody doubts that China has joined the ranks of the great powers: the idea of a G2 with America is mooted, albeit prematurely. India is often spoken of in the same breath as China because of its billion-plus population, economic promise, value as a trading partne...Read More
Instead Of Doing His Job, Jeroen Dijsselbloem Has Given Us A Glimpse Of The Euro 'End Game' … If you've been following the Cyprus bailout story at all, you're probably familiar by now with Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch Finance Minister who became President of the Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers in January. As President of the Eurogroup, Dijsselbloem has one extremel...Read More
In a previous post, I explained that banks are inherently fragile. One way to make them more robust is to increase equity capital requirements … A genuinely radical approach would be to kill banking as we know it. Rip all banks, large or small, in two – separate deposit-taking from credit-creation. Back the deposits one-for-one with reserves at the central bank. Then fund loans not wit...Read More
The federal government's collection of unused and vacant properties is killing taxpayers. Watchdog groups say maintenance and bureaucratic red tape related to the U.S. government's 55,000-to-77,000 vacant properties has cost taxpayers up to $8 billion so far. An example: The government just sold off one of its buildings this month, for $19.5 million, Breitbart reports. But it took 10 years...Read More
Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, continues to urge that public officials come to grips with the frequency of extreme weather … A spokesman for Mr. Cuomo said he believed New York was the first state to caution investors about climate change. The caution, which cites Hurricane Sandy and Tropical Storms Irene and Lee, is included alongside warnings about other risks like potential cuts in federal spendi...Read More
Russell Lynch: Central banks are now too powerful to have free rein … Who guards the guards? It's a question worth asking as the Bank of England takes on a vast new remit to oversee the financial system alongside its existing rate-setting powers next week. It was a question also bothering many of the "rock stars" of economics on parade at the London School of Economics this wee...Read More
'Robo-reporter' computer program raises questions about future of journalists … Reporters may not look like this in the future, but one media outlet employs a robo-reporter — a program that compiles data into a pre-determined structure, then formats the information for publication. Journalist Ken Schwencke has occasionally awakened in the morning to find his byline atop a news...Read More
Instead Of Doing His Job, Jeroen Dijsselbloem Has Given Us A Glimpse Of The Euro 'End Game' … If you've been following the Cyprus bailout story at all, you're probably familiar by now with Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch Finance Minister who became President of the Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers in January. As President of the Eurogroup, Dijsselbloem has one extremel...Read More
In a previous post, I explained that banks are inherently fragile. One way to make them more robust is to increase equity capital requirements … A genuinely radical approach would be to kill banking as we know it. Rip all banks, large or small, in two – separate deposit-taking from credit-creation. Back the deposits one-for-one with reserves at the central bank. Then fund loans not wit...Read More
The federal government's collection of unused and vacant properties is killing taxpayers. Watchdog groups say maintenance and bureaucratic red tape related to the U.S. government's 55,000-to-77,000 vacant properties has cost taxpayers up to $8 billion so far. An example: The government just sold off one of its buildings this month, for $19.5 million, Breitbart reports. But it took 10 years...Read More
Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, continues to urge that public officials come to grips with the frequency of extreme weather … A spokesman for Mr. Cuomo said he believed New York was the first state to caution investors about climate change. The caution, which cites Hurricane Sandy and Tropical Storms Irene and Lee, is included alongside warnings about other risks like potential cuts in federal spendi...Read More
Russell Lynch: Central banks are now too powerful to have free rein … Who guards the guards? It's a question worth asking as the Bank of England takes on a vast new remit to oversee the financial system alongside its existing rate-setting powers next week. It was a question also bothering many of the "rock stars" of economics on parade at the London School of Economics this wee...Read More
'Robo-reporter' computer program raises questions about future of journalists … Reporters may not look like this in the future, but one media outlet employs a robo-reporter — a program that compiles data into a pre-determined structure, then formats the information for publication. Journalist Ken Schwencke has occasionally awakened in the morning to find his byline atop a news...Read More
Energy, Security, and Climate … CFR experts examine the science and foreign policy surrounding climate change, energy, and nuclear security. Bad News for Pessimists Everywhere: Malthus Was Wrong … There is a tempting intuition to the idea that the real prices of non-renewable goods like coal, iron ore, or oil should rise, more or less, forever. It's an easy argument to make, and it...Read More