In The News

Banks Miss Out as Chinese Firms Do DIY Deal Advice

Sumeet Chatterjee and Denny Thomas August 18, 2016
While Chinese tech mergers and acquisitions doubled to more than $60 billion in 2015, fee volume rose by just over half as much. “China's cashed-up and ambitious technology firms are increasingly spurning external advisers on acquisitions and investments in foreign companies,” report Sumeet Chatterjee and Denny Thomas. The technology firms pass over investment bankers who typically handle...

Cheap Money Helped Inflate Energy Balloon

Rani Molla and Lisa Abramowicz June 20, 2016
The loose monetary policy applied by the US Federal Reserve, crafted to stimulate the economy after the 2007-2008 global debt crisis, may have also contributed to the shale oil boom and recent bust. The policy of reduced rates and borrowing costs may have encouraged speculative behavior as investors searched for high yields. “The increase in debt went hand in hand with a drastic increase in U.S....

American Capitalism’s Great Crisis

Rana Foroohar June 8, 2016
Young Americans no longer perceive benefits from capitalism, and such sentiments will influence the outcome of the US presidential election. The system of US market capitalism is broken, explains Rana Foroohar, author and Time magazine’s assistant managing editor for economics and business. Only about 15 percent of wealth from individual and corporate savings is invested in businesses for adding...

Cheap Money Helped Inflate Energy Balloon

Rani Molla and Lisa Abramowicz June 7, 2016
An easy monetary policy applied by the US Federal Reserve and other central banks since 2008 to stimulate the economy after the global debt crisis may have contributed to the shale oil boom and bust. The reduced interest rates and borrowing costs may have encouraged speculative behavior among investors searching for high yields. “The increase in debt went hand in hand with a drastic increase in U...

6 X-Factor Risks Keeping Fund Managers, Investors Up at Night

Marcus Padley May 27, 2016
Global fund managers responding to a monthly Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey identify and rank risks that could cause an abrupt and abnormal drop in global markets. Britain’s possible exit from the European Union tops the list for May. Second, an ongoing concern is the risk of devaluation and defaults in China. Another ongoing concern is quantitative failure, “that trillions of dollars...

What Macroeconomists Are Missing

Andrew Sheng May 25, 2016
Mainstream economic models failed to predict the 2007 global economic crisis. In an essay for CaixinOnline, Andrew Sheng suggests that the models overlook the impact of uncertainty and that fragmented analysis neglects global connections: “[S]pecialists and departmental agencies know more and more about less and less and are unable to connect the dots to view the economic and social system as a...

Globalization Is Changing, Not Going Into Reverse

Minouche Shafik April 14, 2016
Globalization can't be expected to move at an even pace. Some aspects of globalization like trade growth and capital flows are slowing, explains Minouche Shafik for Financial Times, but others like communications are growing. She is a deputy governor of the Bank of England. Shafik adds that regional agreements are emerging in trade and financial areas because of mistrust of global approaches...