In The News

How to Make Sense of Plummeting Global Markets

Neil Irwin January 21, 2016
The globe economy is in “reasonably solid state,” according to most leading forecasts as reported by the New York Times. Yet market “volatility and direction are consistent with the prospect of a new crisis or global recession, explains Neil Irwin. The evidence does not yet indicate whether such levels of market turbulence are rational or irrational, he explains, with the S&P 500 falling 9...

Worries Over China’s Slowdown Drive Global Markets

Farok J. Contractor January 21, 2016
Global markets are plummeting, in part a response to slowing growth in China and volatility in the nation’s stock markets. “World markets turn needlessly bearish – failing to understand that the Shanghai or Shenzhen markets are not necessarily good indicators of the fundamentals of the Chinese economy or cultural root causes driving Chinese investors,” writes Farok Contractor, a professor at...

Analysis: Iran Deals May Not Herald Rapid Changes

Adam Schreck January 18, 2016
The terms of a nuclear agreement with Iran are being implemented, followed by a prisoner exchange, planning for an order of Airbus planes, and release of frozen Iranian assets, but the Associated Press warns that rapid change is unlikely. “It will take time for the economic benefits to trickle down to ordinary Iranians, but the goodwill from the deal could translate into electoral gains for...

A Towering Chinese Debt Mountain Looms Over Markets

Enda Curran January 15, 2016
Slowed growth in the world’s second largest economy, combined with heavy debt and currency volatility, is dragging down global markets. Since 2007, China and other countries responded to the global financial crisis with loose monetary policy. China’s “government is constrained by a credit bubble that has ballooned to $28 trillion in an economy growing at its slowest pace in 25 years,” reports...

The New Geo-Economics

Joseph E. Stiglitz January 11, 2016
Global economic growth, offering connections and solutions that have enriched many and lifted more out of poverty, has slowed in recent months. Economist Joseph Stiglitz compares the processes in negotiating two agreements – the global climate agreement approved in Paris and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, yet to be ratified, a trade agreement among 12 nations including the United States, but not...

Irredeemable?

January 8, 2016
By the end of 2016, Brazil’s economy may be 8 percent smaller than it was during the first quarter of 2014, reports the Economist. Commodity prices are slumping, and GDP could shrink by a fifth. Some call for the president’s impeachment; legislators are under investigation for accepting bribes related to contracts with the state-controlled oil-and-gas company, Petrobras. The Economist describes...

The World Wary as US Federal Reserve Declares End to Debt Crisis

Chris Miller January 5, 2016
Central banks around the globe responded to the 2007-2008 global debt crisis by reducing interest rates and loosening monetary policy to encourage consumer spending, investment, employment and price stability. After seven years the US Federal Reserve lifted interest rates in December and signaled the possibility of gradual rate hikes, a move described by Chairwoman Janet Yellen as a process of “...