RT @j_tepperman: New NYT column on the politics of history and memory in Asia: http://t.co/RpPW9myS8u
13 minutes ago
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What Wolfson Did Next
At around 9:00am London time this morning Lord Wolfson held a press conference to announce the five finalists in his economics prize contest. I have done a podcast discussing the prize objectives and their implications with the Spain based British blogger Matthew Bennett. You can download it here. The first thing that needs to be said about [...]
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Portugal Gradually Shuffles Its Way Towards the Front of the Debt Queue
Well, a weekend during which Greece seems to have been finally able to pass muster on its bond deal, while Mario Draghi has given the official “all clear” on the debt crisis, seems to be as good a moment as any to have a look at the country which many investors consider likely to be the next [...]
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Homeric Similes and Spanish Debt
“Nihil sapientiae odiosius acumine nimio“ (Nothing is more hateful to wisdom than excessive cleverness) Petrarch, “De Remediis utriusque Fortunae” Like Leo Messi charging his way through a packed Real Madrid defense, twisting now this way, now that, never stopping without being stopped, so did the Spanish sovereign debt surge forward, breaking directly into the red [...]
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Staring Into the Ukrainian Economic and Political Abyss
It’s been a long time now since Paul Krugman spoke of the Ukrainian economy epitomizing the arrival of what he then termed the “second great depression“, and it’s been an even longer long time since we lay awake at night dreaming about the coming conquests of the Orange Revolution. It’s also been a good time since I looked [...]
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2012 – The Year We All Learn to Live Dangerously
Well, the latest batch of EU interim growth forecasts are out, and there are few surprises after so much prior comment. The Euro Area as a whole is expected to contract, but of course within the aggregate contraction some will fare rather better than others. “The EU is set to experience stagnating GDP this year, [...]
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For Whom the Bailout Tolls
“On an optimistic view, that a deal was struck implies that neither side was ultimately willing to risk a Greek exit because they recognise that no one fully understands all the ramifications of such a decision. Under this scenario, when pressure again builds, the authorities will do the same: let Greece remain in the euro, [...]
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Quick Reality Czech
The Czech Republic is the first economy in central and eastern Europe to slide back into a full technical recession during the current downturn (evidently it is unlikely to be the last), with a 0.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter GDP decline in the last three months of 2011, after a 0.1 per cent drop in the previous [...]
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Global Manufacturing Steadies as She Goes, or Does She?
The year got off on a much better foot than might have been expected, at least as far as global manufacturing is concerned. As the JP Morgan report puts it: “The global manufacturing sector continued to record below trend growth at the start of 2012. At 51.2 in January, the JPMorgan Global Manufacturing PMI™ rose [...]
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A Month in Spain That Didn’t Shake the World
Journalists are undoubtedly having a hard time following official economic policy in Spain at the moment. The core of the problem they face is that we have a hydra headed government which speaks with many tongues. In some ways the lack of coordination can be put down to simple newness and inexperience, although it should be [...]
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Arming The Bazooka?
Well, this one is just too good to miss, since it seems to have appeared online a matter of minutes after I put up my last post: IMF to Seek $1 Trillion Boost Amid Euro Crisis The International Monetary Fund is proposing a $1 trillion expansion of its lending resources to safeguard the global economy [...]
