Economics

By Vladimir Remmer The world financial equilibrium was devastated in 2006 when the US housing market bubble finally burst. Real Estate prices plummeted, wiping out securities tied to housing and striking financial institutions globally. The human toll was staggering and manifested in mass evictions, bankruptcies and foreclosures, combined with catastrophic job market contraction and prolonged unemployment. The consumer wealth adjustment, estimated to be trillions of US dollars, inhibited economic activity throughout most of the world and led to the 2008...

By J T Coombes www.globalmagnacarta.com @GMagnaCarta I have just arranged a holiday abroad. To help with my decision making I went on a virtual trip to look around the place, courtesy of Google, investigating the towns, restaurants (plus their menus!) and places of interest that are 1,700 miles and four hours flying time away. I also had a video call to the owner of the place where we are staying to fine tune transfers and other ‘hygiene’ details. The internet...

By Valentina Magri Mamma mia, here we go again. But this time is different: neither Abba nor Mr Berlusconi are part of the story. Despite this fact, there is an eerie feeling over déjà vu in the air. Italy has dipped back into recession for the third time since 2008. The latest Istat preliminary estimate of GDP fell by 0.2 per cent in the second quarter 2014. It is the minimum level in 14 years. How could this of happened (again)?...

By Jack Peat  “Give it to the people at the bottom and the people at the top will have it before night. But at least it will have passed through the poor fellow’s hands.” Will Rogers Good capitalism is the ability to promote incentives and opportunity in equal measure. Sway too far one way and the potential of human capital is stifled, sway too far in the other direction and the willingness to realise this potential also goes amiss. Of...

By Elsa Buchanan As the European Commission and the US are busy negotiating a free trade agreement, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), campaigners say they are increasingly worried citizens are losing their democratic privileges. While corporations are looking forward to an improved trade and regulatory cooperation between the US and EU, the opposition -which includes Pan-European civil society groups - is concerned that regulatory convergence will grind down hard-won social and environmental standards. "The thing with TTIP is...

By Stephen Angus Peter Junor  October represents a deadline for the various African blocs to negotiate and accept a free trade deal with the EU, a deal which has been on the table since Doha 2000. African relations with the EU are split into five blocs: West Africa, Central Africa, Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA), East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). As of now, West Africa and the SADC are the only two blocs to have...

By Philip Benton Recently I attended a talk here in London about digital currencies and how they could be the answer to our economic woes and the key to rebuilding our broken society. I went in with an open mind, keen to broaden my interest in the curious world of crypto currencies, but somehow came out with more questions than answers. The talk was hosted by ex-investment banker Simon Dixon and Max Keiser of The Keiser Report fame. The opening...

By David Binder The issue of economic inequality has once again been thrust into the spotlight by French economist Thomas Picketty’s new book ‘Capital in the Twenty-First century.’ Whilst his research has been discussed at great length elsewhere (the Washington Centre for Equitable Growth has produced a useful summary of some reviews) it is worthwhile to step back and consider the virtues of pursuing policies aiming to reduce economic inequality. In other words, is economic inequality in itself always a...

By Elsa Buchanan After a decade of anti-Western discourses, the world’s emerging economies have finally launched a pair of financial institutions they hope will challenge their pet hates, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Built on shared complaints and challenges, the new ‘mini IMF and World Bank’ has been billed as a historic challenge to the global financial order that has been dominated by the US and Western Europe since the 1944 inception of the IMF. But are...