As shown by yet another global stock selloff, investors have finally woken to the reality that we have not yet recovered from the 2008 financial crisis. Many smart economists had been warning that this time was different, that we …
As shown by yet another global stock selloff, investors have finally woken to the reality that we have not yet recovered from the 2008 financial crisis. Many smart economists had been warning that this time was different, that we wouldn’t enjoy that simple, V-shaped return to normalcy after the Great Recession. But the global …
Over the past few days, the U.S. has been in the world’s crosshairs. Political bickering in Washington produced a debt agreement widely criticized as insufficient and incomplete. Standard & Poor’s downgraded America’s credit rating, raising concerns about the health of the world’s most important economy. Slow growth in the U.S. …
Updated Aug. 9, 8pm EDT
In 2008, as Lehman Brothers collapsed, stocks melted down, Wall Street buckled and finance and trade froze from Tokyo to Chicago, governments and central banks across the world stepped in to save the day. Yes, the Great Recession was terrible, the worst economic downturn since the 1930s, but it could have …
Standard & Poor’s decision to strip the U.S. of its triple-A credit rating, whether we agree with it or not, signals a turning point for the entire global economy. Because of the unique role the U.S. plays in the world economy, a downgrade of the U.S. isn’t anything like a downgrade of Greece or Spain. For the past century, and …
It’s like déjà vu all over again. Or is it?
That’s the question everyone on Wall Street will be asking as they enter their somber offices this morning. Thursday’s bloodletting on U.S. stock markets followed time zones around the globe as investors engaged in a panic-driven global selloff. Tokyo and Seoul were both down 3.7%, and …
The tumultuous events in the U.S. and Europe over the past few days have highlighted a sad reality – political paralysis has become a primary hurdle to solving the West’s economic woes. In the U.S., the unsightly and embarrassing squabble in Washington over an arrangement to raise the government debt ceiling exposed American …
When U.S. President Barack Obama announced Sunday night that he and Congressional leaders had finally reached an agreement to raise the government debt ceiling, the world breathed a collective sigh of relief. Stock markets in Asia jumped on the news. Yes, the pact still has to pass through the Senate and unruly House of Representatives …
While Washington is gripped in an agonizing and potentially lethal game of chicken over the U.S. debt ceiling, the risk of sovereign defaults still remains much higher across the pond, in Europe. Sure, Europe’s leaders are probably feeling good about themselves after finally cobbling together a second bailout of beleaguered Greece last …
After 18 months of dithering, bickering and delusion, the leaders the euro zone have finally conceded to the inevitable and cobbled together a second bailout of Greece. The total package agreed to on Thursday – with fresh loans of $157 billion – includes some startling breakthroughs in Europe’s approach to solving the destabilizing …
At first glance, that may sound like a crazy question. The two giants of the global economy appear to be heading in opposite directions. China is the world’s up-and-coming superpower, propelled forward by stratospheric growth, advancing industry, a goal-oriented political system and a supposedly superior form of economic management, …
Investors are running for the hills these days, shaken to the core by fears that sovereign defaults will roil global markets and derail the shaky recovery. They have a lot to worry about. European leaders will gather for an emergency meeting on Thursday to try to finally hammer out an agreement on a second bailout of tottering Greece – …
