The Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie famously proclaimed that “we should all be feminists”—an idea that became an acclaimed book, a TEDx talk (video), and a rallying cry that has new resonance in the era of #metoo. This week in London, she offered a simple first step to help make it happen for men and boys:
Since 2010, Greece has undergone three bailouts worth a staggering total of nearly €310 billion ($360 billion).
After eight years and more than €300 billion ($346 billion) in bailout money, Greece is tantalizingly close to exiting its latest aid program.
General Electric’s time in the Dow Jones Industrial Average is finally up—because its share price has dropped too far down.
The International Monetary Fund is wringing its hands over the state of the US’s public finances under Donald Trump’s administration. The organization says the near-term outlook for the US economy couldn’t be rosier. Next year, the US is expected to mark its longest economic expansion on record, and the job market is in the midst of an unprecedented stretch of growth.
What if everything was for sale? What if you had to name a price for everything you owned and be willing to sell it if a buyer matched your offer? And you couldn’t cheat by overestimating the price to keep your property because your taxes would be based on the value you chose.
Even the most casual sports fan can’t help but get sucked in by the World Cup. In 2014, 3.2 billion people watched the matches. This year, even more people are expected to tune in to the tournament in Russia. The pull of World Cup is so strong that it has a noticeable effect on financial market activity as traders—like everyone else—turn their attention from work to play.
Late last year, New Zealand’s government announced a plan to ban foreigners from buying existing homes to cool its red-hot housing market. The move appears to have spurred a spree of home buying in pockets of the island nation instead.
Before the financial crisis, the Royal Bank of Scotland was once the world’s largest bank, measured by assets. Today, it’s not even close to the biggest bank in the UK. In 2008 and 2009, after the global financial crisis brought RBS close to the brink of collapse, the British government spent £45.5 billion ($60.9 billion) in taxpayer funds to bail it out. Now, the government’s determination to sell down its majority stake in the troubled lender is saddling the state with heavy losses.
When it comes to climate change, the phrase “ignorance is bliss” couldn’t be further from the truth, at least not anymore. British lawmakers want to end ignorance—willful or not—by big companies and asset managers when it comes to the risk climate changes poses to them.
The US labor market is putting on an unprecedented show of strength. There have now been 92 consecutive months of gains in US payrolls, the longest continuous stretch since records began. Since late 2010, the US economy has added 18.3 million jobs over that period.
Donald Trump has decided to ramp up a trade war with countries that would otherwise be considered American allies. The president has let exemptions expire on tariffs for steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Mexico, and the EU.
When Italians went to the polls in early March and mostly split their votes between two populist parties—Five Star Movement and the League—markets barely blinked. As months of coalition negotiations dragged on and Italy went without a government, traders yawned. It seemed the general strength of the global economy, and the belief that the European Central Bank would never let things get too bad, was strong enough to keep things on an even keel.
It has been 85 days since Italy’s general election, and while just over a week ago the two winning populist parties looked tantalizingly close to forming a government, that plan has fallen apart again over who should be finance minister.
Good news! Last year, 74% of Americans said they are doing at least “okay” financially, a 12 percentage-point increase over the past five years. That’s according to the latest survey of household economics by the Federal Reserve (pdf). This improving self-assessment of finances mirrors the positive trend in US employment, with the jobless rate recently dropping to its lowest level in almost 18 years.
This year is the 10th anniversary of the global financial crisis. To mark the occasion, the US Congress has dismantled some of the regulations put in place in the aftermath to prevent history from repeating itself.
Thank you, Donald Trump! US commercial banks made a record profit in the first quarter of 2018, which the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation credited to the Trump administration’s corporate tax cuts, and an increase in revenue with a greater return on assets.
Economists come under fire when things go wrong, and the main line of attack comes from forecasts gone awry. Forecasting is an integral part of many economists’ jobs, and a valuable tool for public policy. The problem is that forecasts are very often wrong—after all, as the famous quote goes, “It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.”
The US is facing an opioid crisis that is like no other country in the world. In 2016, 64,000 people died of an overdose, primarily due to opioid use. For the past five years, the Federal Reserve has been conducting a national study on economic wellbeing (pdf). Last year, it started asking questions about opioid usage. The Fed found that one in five adults in the US personally knows someone who has been addicted to opioids or prescription painkillers.
Last year, the US dollar experienced its worst year in more than a decade. But after stumbling through the start of this year, the greenback has finally started to find its feet.
To no one’s surprise, incumbent Nicolás Maduro won Venezuela’s presidential election yesterday. This gives him another six years in power, amid devastating hyperinflation, food and medicine shortages, charges of corruption, and an all-round broken economy.
It’s been two and a half months since Italy’s election when anti-establishment parties won 55% of the vote, but the country is still without a government. The two biggest parties, the Five Star Movement and League, which come from seemingly opposite ends of the populist spectrum, have been negotiating for weeks to form a new government. Today, they published a contract for their shared platform.
US household debt has set yet another record high. In the first quarter of 2018, it reached $13.2 trillion, a $63 billion increase from the previous quarter. Now, household debt is half a trillion dollars higher than its previous peak in 2008, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which uses data from Equifax.
These days, the good times for Japan’s economy never seem to last very long. After eight consecutive quarters of positive economic growth, the longest such stretch in 28 years, Japan’s economy is back to shrinking.
