Category: Economy

Sep 08

China and Russia sound alarm on global economy

China sounded the alarm about the state of the global economy on Saturday at APEC summit, and Russian President Putin also expresses concern. Chinese leaders call for stronger integration in APEC Countries (Reuters), while promising they will work to provide a better policy environment to attract foreign investments in China (Reuters). Meanwhile, chinese companies keep …

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Sep 01

Next winners in the global economy

Who is going to win the global competition between old and new economies? Dani Rodrik’s insight, professor at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, provides a three condition scenario for relative growth: “those that do relatively better will share three characteristics. First, they will not be weighed down by high levels of public debt. Second, …

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Sep 01

Oil prices in the next decade

  An influential working paper was released by IMF on The Future of Oil, and “its point forecast is for a near doubling of the real price of oil over the coming decade”. This is really bad news for the world economy, but the debate on its effects still languishes as economists and policy makers are …

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Aug 27

Fire

Italy is burning (+104% hectares destroyed by fire in 2012, fraudulent in 90% of cases), but the offenders usually stay free and risk very light penalties (288 people accused until 10 August are gently called ‘pyromaniacs’ by media and Authorities), and the Municipal land registers of burnt areas have never been activated (they are necessary …

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Aug 23

They see a light

The most influential members of the Italian government have been the leading actors of the annual convention of Comunione e Liberazione, the powerful catholic sect with a strong bias for business and many leaders convicted or prosecuted for bribing. Probably due to the mystic atmosphere in the “Meeting” and against any evidence and data (see …

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Aug 20

Employment and growth in Italy

Federico Fubini illustrates on Corriere della Sera recent data from Eurostat, and shows two of major gaps of the Italian economy: the share of working people out of population (36,8%), which is very far from the EU average (and the worst after the Greek 33,4%) and is much higher than the official unemployment rate (10,8%); …

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Aug 19

Italy’s world records – #3

Every day the ‘government of professors’ adds miles to its distance from reality. While the burden for new taxes and inflation weights for over 2.300 euro per family in 2012, recession is stronger than ever and taxes fly at the top of EU taxation systems, the professor chats with Tempi (magazine of Comunione e Liberazione, …

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