By Santo Das Gupta
IDN-InDepth NewsReport
PARIS (IDN) – The prospects for the world economy look rather gloomy in the coming two years, says a respectable international economic organisation of 34 countries. The situation can, however, be redeemed if leading industrial and emerging countries take “bold decisions” to get the global economy back on track, it adds.
By Raúl de Sagastizabal
IDN-InDepth NewsEssay
Hedging behaviour, a high degree of groupthink, intellectual capture, a general mind-set that excludes contrary views, fiefdom battles, inadequate analytical approaches, and lack of accountability should make governments ask themselves whether the time has not come to withdraw their support for the IMF.
By Raul de Sagastizabal*
IDN-InDepth NewsEssay
MONTEVIDEO (IDN) – The storm that threatens the global economy has been raging ever since the toxic assets crisis started five long years ago. That crisis has not ended, or receded, but transformed into multiple crises: from fiscal deficit and sovereign debt to poverty, unemployment and the rise in food and fuel prices. Nevertheless, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had to get its face wet to take note of the storm and rain.
By Barry Grey*
IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis
LOS ANGELES (IDN) – Three years after the Wall Street crash of 2008, finance ministers, central bankers and economists assembled in Washington for the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank present a picture of perplexity and fear as the crisis spins out of control and lurches toward a full-scale depression.
By Steffen Dyck*
IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint
While media reports are emphasising the role China could play in assisting to resolve the Eurozone debt crisis, a Deutsche Bank research analyst, Steffen Dyck, warns that expectations pinned on China might be far from realistic. The amount needed when looking at estimated refinancing needs for 2012 is huge, totalling EUR 730 billion for the GIIPS countries – an acronym for Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
By Peter Wahl*
IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis
BERLIN (IDN) – In spring 2011 it became more and more obvious that Greece would not be able to comply with the conditionality of the 2010 rescue package of €120 billion. Targets were not reached since the budget cuts and austerity measures had stalled growth, and the recession was deeper than calculated. Spending for unemployment went up while tax revenues fell.
By Ernest Corea*
IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis
WASHINGTON DC (IDN) – Reports of stocks plummeting and investor confidence diminishing dominated news cycles even as President Barack Obama attempted to reassure fellow-Americans – and the world – that their confidence in the country’s continuing strength would endure.
Speaking directly to the White House press corps and projecting his remarks to broader publics, Obama asserted that “markets will rise and fall, but this is the United States of America, and no matter what some agency may say, we always have been and always will be a triple-A country.”
By Raúl de Sagastizabal*
IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis
MONTEVIDEO (IDN) – The WTO member countries are moving towards the Eighth Ministerial Conference in Doha next December, again with no concrete results, even on issues relating to least-developed Countries (LDCs), recognized by the member countries’ ambassadors in the informal meeting of last July 26.
By Martin Khor*
IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis
Booming capital flows to developing countries are destabilising currencies and threaten to end in a bust. The commodity markets are also subjected to speculation, with volatile fluctuations in prices. Capital controls at the domestic level and regulation of capital flows and commodity markets at the international level are both needed.
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