In The News

Governments Clamp Down: New York Times

March 9, 2020
The world has more than 110,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and nations impose more restrictions to contain the spread, which also slows spending and hurts businesses. “Italy began one of the largest-ever attempts to restrict the movement of people in a Western democracy, with a lockdown of the country’s northern region affecting about 16 million people and fueling questions about whether...

OPEC to Russia – It’s Over: OilPrice.com

Julianne Geiger March 8, 2020
A meeting between OPEC and non-OPC members, more than 20 nations in all, resulted in no deal to cut oil production in order to boost prices. “OPEC and the Coronavirus have been pressuring Russia for weeks as oil prices have tumbled to sub-$50 per barrel, but Russia has so far decided it doesn’t want to participate in further production cuts to offset the loss in demand,” reports Julianne Geiger...

Declining Fortunes of the Young: IMFBlog

Era Dabla-Norris , Carlo Pizzinelli and Jay Rappaport March 3, 2020
A key indicator of economic success for families is that children do as well as their parents. Such assumptions are less sure. “Despite being more educated than their parents, millennials – those born between 1980 and 2000 – may have less job stability during their working life,” explains a team for the IMFBlog. Entering and remaining in the middle class, fast-changing job requirements, intense...

Denmark the New “American Dream”? PIIE

Jacob Funk Kirkegaard March 2, 2020
Denmark may represent a new version of the American dream, as voters and Democratic candidates in the US presidential race seek secure benefits, especially affordable health care. An OECD study suggests that low-income families in Denmark, due to reduced inequality, can enter the middle class in two generations whereas low-income US families require five generations. Such reduced inequality comes...

When China Sneezes: Project Syndicate

Stephen S. Roach February 26, 2020
Cases of the new coronavirus, confirmed in more than 30 countries, strikes when the global economy is already vulnerable and many countries struggle with debt, stagnant growth, reduced industrial output and job creation. COVID-19 has triggered an unexpected disruption to supply and demand. China is at the center of global value chains, explains Stephen S. Roach, an economist based at Yale...

Investors Come Back for Bitcoin: Financial Times

Eva Szalay and Laurence Fletcher February 10, 2020
Bitcoin’s excellent performance in 2019 has attracted investors from banks and asset managers once again, despite past worries about the currency’s reputational risk, lack of regulation, and volatile returns. In 2017, bitcoin went above US$20,000, prompting Wall Street banks to rush and develop their own digital currencies with blockchain technology. CME Group launched the first futures on a...

Global Economy Without Cushion: Project Syndicate

Stephen S. Roach February 6, 2020
Global recessions are rare, but the world may have dodged one in 2019. The world posted GDP growth of 2.9 percent that year, far below the average 3.5 percent posted since 1980. Deviations from the trend signal a warning even for strong economies and corporations, suggests economist Stephen S. Roach with Yale University. “Unlike individual economies, which normally contract in an outright...