Government borrowing costs are spiking.
Category Archives: international
Avoiding Lost Decades: European Edition
From Liz Alderman in the NY Times today:
Germany and France Aim to Avert a ‘Lost Decade’
The economy ministers of France and Germany called on Thursday for urgent overhauls and a series of investments in both countries to help prevent them and the eurozone from falling into a stagnation trap.
The Japanese GDP Release: The Bad and the Not so Bad
Instead of a 0.2% q/q increase as in the WSJ survey, GDP declined 0.4% [0] [1] It’s pretty bad news, but here are a couple of observations, following up on my previous post on Japan.
Preventing a Global Slowdown
Action is needed in the eurozone and Japan, according to the Treasury Secretary.
IMF Annual Research Conference on “Cross-Border Spillovers”
The proceedings start tomorrow (Thursday).
Rouble Floats, and Sinks
From Reuters yesterday:
The rouble tumbled on Wednesday after Russia’s central bank effectively abandoned the trading corridor for the currency, halting the multi-billion dollar daily interventions that had propped it up through sanctions and plunging oil revenues.
Guest Contribution: Is the US Current Account Deficit Problem Over?
Today we are fortunate to have a guest contribution written by Jeffrey Frankel, Harpel Professor of Capital Formation and Growth at Harvard University, and former Member of the Council of Economic Advisers, 1997-99.
Competitiveness, Exchange Rates, Spillovers, the End of Original Sin, and More
Those are the topics covered in the West Coast Workshop on International Finance and Open Economy Macroeconomics, held October 17, 2014, and co-organized by Helen Popper (University of Santa Clara) and Michael Hutchison (UC Santa Cruz). The agenda is here (co-sponsored by SCU, UCSC, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco).
“Exchange rates, monetery policy, and financial policy”
In emerging and developing countries. That’s the title of a conference, organized by Gunther Schnabl (Leipzig) and Ansgar Belke (Duisberg-Essen), I’m attending in Leipzig.
link
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Russia under Pressure: “Russia Moves Ruble Band in Biggest Intervention Since March”
That’s the title to today’s article in Reuters. I’ve been surprised that the Russian economy has taken as much a hit as it has, partly in response to sanction and spillover effects onto confidence from those sanctions. I think the skeptics of the efficacy of sanctions for hitting the Russian economy will have to re-assess.