Christine Lagarde: "2013 Will Be Make or Break" Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, cautioned at the World Economic Forum in Davos that Europe must continue to guard against a relapse in 2013. Speaking at an event honoring women leaders hosted by Credit Suisse in partnership with Newsweek and The Daily Beast, Lagarde was joined by Egyptian human right...Read More
Euro zone economy to shrink again … "The improved financial market situation contrasts with the absence of credit growth and the weakness of the near-term outlook for economic activity," said Marco Buti, the commission's director-general for economic and monetary affairs. "The labor market… is a serious concern," he said, in a preamble to the Commission's la...Read More
Future of private bankers under the microscope … With the demise of Wegelin and planned ownership changes at Pictet and Lombard Odier, the number of traditional, family-run private bankers in Switzerland is shrinking from a Second World War rate of around 60 to just nine. The world of private banking faces an evolving landscape. The rate of new wealth creation in emerging economies eclipses...Read More
French President François Hollande awarded UNESCO peace prize … "After analyzing the global situation, it is Africa that held the attention of the Jury with the various threats affecting the continent," said the former President of Mozambique, Joaquim Chissano, who chaired the Jury of the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize. "Having assessed the dangers and t...Read More
Euro zone economy to shrink again … "The improved financial market situation contrasts with the absence of credit growth and the weakness of the near-term outlook for economic activity," said Marco Buti, the commission's director-general for economic and monetary affairs. "The labor market… is a serious concern," he said, in a preamble to the Commission's la...Read More
Future of private bankers under the microscope … With the demise of Wegelin and planned ownership changes at Pictet and Lombard Odier, the number of traditional, family-run private bankers in Switzerland is shrinking from a Second World War rate of around 60 to just nine. The world of private banking faces an evolving landscape. The rate of new wealth creation in emerging economies eclipses...Read More
French President François Hollande awarded UNESCO peace prize … "After analyzing the global situation, it is Africa that held the attention of the Jury with the various threats affecting the continent," said the former President of Mozambique, Joaquim Chissano, who chaired the Jury of the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize. "Having assessed the dangers and t...Read More
India and Vietnam: Taking the Glitter out of Gold … When uncertainty reigns, investors all over the world turn to gold as a safe haven. But some countries are starting to take issue with their residents' preference for storing wealth in gold bars, rather than bank accounts. Large gold imports can throw of a country's current account balance – the difference between what a count...Read More
Stop Mandating Reliance on Ratings … The Justice Department's suit against Standard & Poor's is a fresh reminder of the large mistakes by the three major rating agencies – S.&P., Moody's, and Fitch – in their evaluations of mortgage-based bonds during 2004-2007. There's an understandable urge to further regulate bond raters to prevent such mistakes in th...Read More
Florida Atlantic University's Stadium Named After a Prison Company … The GEO Group (GEO) is a for-profit prison company based in Boca Raton, Fla., that calls itself "the world's leading provider of correctional and detention management and community reentry services to federal, state and local government agencies." It can also call itself the world's leading provider of...Read More
India and Vietnam: Taking the Glitter out of Gold … When uncertainty reigns, investors all over the world turn to gold as a safe haven. But some countries are starting to take issue with their residents' preference for storing wealth in gold bars, rather than bank accounts. Large gold imports can throw of a country's current account balance – the difference between what a count...Read More
Stop Mandating Reliance on Ratings … The Justice Department's suit against Standard & Poor's is a fresh reminder of the large mistakes by the three major rating agencies – S.&P., Moody's, and Fitch – in their evaluations of mortgage-based bonds during 2004-2007. There's an understandable urge to further regulate bond raters to prevent such mistakes in th...Read More
Florida Atlantic University's Stadium Named After a Prison Company … The GEO Group (GEO) is a for-profit prison company based in Boca Raton, Fla., that calls itself "the world's leading provider of correctional and detention management and community reentry services to federal, state and local government agencies." It can also call itself the world's leading provider of...Read More
China loves the US dollar again as America roars back … China's central bank has radically revised its view of US economic and strategic power, predicting that the dollar will remain the world's paramount reserve currency for decades to come. Dr Jin said the world was moving to a '1+4' system, with the greenback serving as the anchor of global payments … Jin Zhongxia, h...Read More
Minimum human wages … The empirics of the minimum wage debate are complex, but it isn't impossible to draw some conclusions. A recent Free exchange column attempted to do just that: America's academics still do not agree on the employment effects. But both sides have honed their methods and, in some ways, the gap between them has shrunk. Messrs Card and Krueger moved on to other work...Read More
Senator Warren's rebuke of regulators goes viral … Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren's strong criticism of U.S. financial regulators last week has inspired a liberal political action committee to launch an online petition urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to take more Wall Street banks to trial. The petition, introduced by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee on Su...Read More
China loves the US dollar again as America roars back … China's central bank has radically revised its view of US economic and strategic power, predicting that the dollar will remain the world's paramount reserve currency for decades to come. Dr Jin said the world was moving to a '1+4' system, with the greenback serving as the anchor of global payments … Jin Zhongxia, h...Read More
Minimum human wages … The empirics of the minimum wage debate are complex, but it isn't impossible to draw some conclusions. A recent Free exchange column attempted to do just that: America's academics still do not agree on the employment effects. But both sides have honed their methods and, in some ways, the gap between them has shrunk. Messrs Card and Krueger moved on to other work...Read More
Senator Warren's rebuke of regulators goes viral … Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren's strong criticism of U.S. financial regulators last week has inspired a liberal political action committee to launch an online petition urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to take more Wall Street banks to trial. The petition, introduced by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee on Su...Read More
Free exchange … The voice of public choice … James Buchanan, who died on January 9th, illuminated political decision-making … A list of things that Americans judge more favourably than Congress, according to Public Policy Polling, a survey firm, includes colonoscopies, root canals, lice and France. America seems to have stumbled from economic crisis to political paralysis. That w...Read More