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China's Producer prices declined by 3%, Consumer prices flatlined, and imports and exports are both down 6.2% in September 2023. Growth is expected not to exceed 5% in forecasts by IMF and others.

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After the pandemic and during high inflation, economic troubles and having to turn to the IMF for conditional loans, Argentines find cause for celebration for their performance at the World Cup Soccer Final in December 2022.

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The cost of the first bailout for Greece of May 2010 is 53 billion euros for eurozone funds and 20 billion euros for IMF funds, according to the European Commission. The cost of the second bailout for Greece of March 2012 is 142 billion euros for eurozone funds and 12 billion euros for IMF funds. The eurozone took back 11 billion euros following the failure of negotiations.

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Higgins cites the IMF and other experts on Greece's debt being unsustainable. He includes a long discussion with Charles Dallara who negotiated in the Brady Plan restructurings for Latin American debt, and for the European banks in 2010-2012 with the EU. Dallara says the issue has become politicized with national parliaments involved making it difficult to tackle the issue of debt reduction. Dallara points out that the Brady plan restructurings were possible because national parliaments were not involved.

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Debt distress in Africa and other developing countries following the coronavirus pandemic in 2020-2021. Kenya and Zimbabwe are seeking IMF assistance. Corruption, mismanagement of the economy, and the effects of the pandemic combine to affect African countries.

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Spain's banking officals at the central bank and at the IMF, Jaime Caruana, Rodrigo Rato, and Jose Vinals, failed to exercize proper oversight over the Spanish banking system and did not draw early attention to the problems that were building up. Each time this came up they insisted that everything was under control and Spain's banks were adequately capitalized. In July 2008 when the issue was raised to Mr Caruana at an IMF news confernece he said: " The financial system in Spain is able to cope with that and is properly capitalized."

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People in Japan know the decluttering movement, to simplify one's life by getting rid of things one really doesn't need, as "danshari." The word "danshari" is taken from 3 Japanese characters meaning "refuse," "dispose" and "separate." Hideko Yamashita's book on danshari is a bestseller in Japan. She says it is a way to get rid of what is contaminating one's life, just like the way one does Buddhist meditation or practices Zen Buddhism to unclutter one's mind. Religion teaches one to keep the minimum that adds meaning and joy to one's life. This is the opposite of the tendency in the postwar years to collect and hoard things. To not be wasteful or "mottainai" was a good thing then, and before the war when there was scarcity of consumer goods during Japan's early development phase. Now with a consumer society things have changed, just as in the U.S. and Europe, decluttering makes sense in a consumer society where one is under constant pressure from advertising to buy things. ...

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Simon Johnson reminds readers that in October 2008, Johnson, Peter Boone, and James Kwak, suggested that some European countries had given taxpayer-backed pledges to banks that had liabilities larger than their own gross domestic products. Their proposal included creation of a European Stability Fund with at least 2 trillion euros of credit lines guaranteed by all member nations, as well as Switzerland, Sweden, and the U.K., to buy time dealing with underlying insolvency in Ireland and other countries. Simon Johnson, is former chief economist of the IMF. He says the euro-zone only belatedly acted on this advice and the politicians never took responsibility for what they allowed to happen. The runaway financial globalization he says, was allowed to happen by US Treasury officials, but European banks were seriously involved in similar behaviour. These banks became too large relative to their economies, captured their regulators and acted recklessly. Europe's leaders haven't fully faced up to this and keep telling their voters that the problem is entirely because of US banks irresponsible behaviour. Ireland was the extreme example of this. And Johnson provides readers with the names of two books on the subject. David Lynch has "When the Luck of the Irish Ran Out," Fintan O'Toole has "Ship of Fools: How Stupidity and Corruption Killed the Celtic Tiger." Both laying out the intermingling of politicians, bankers and real-estate developers that resulted in the reckless growth and collapse of Ireland. In his own account in Atlantic magazine, May 2009, Johnson compared the US economc boom-bust-bailout cycle to what happened to Argentina, Russia and Indonesia. These were emerging middle class countries with crony capitalism, unsustainable debt and other problems. Johnson says, don't think these problems are limited to emerging markets. Its a global or general occurrence in which powerful people get together to build an economic model that brings growth based on debt. Under public pressure the German government keeps saying there must be burden sharing, that creditors must take losses also. Johnson says Angela Merkel and her colleagues have not thought through what signal this sends to the markets- which is to tell people to get out of Irish banks now. And the big German banks are telling the government they face big losses if Ireland or other European countries default. If the ECB can't pay, and the German taxpayer won't pay, Johnson asks, does the IMF have the resources to tackle Spain? If China offers to recapitalize the IMF with some of its $2.6 trillon in reserves, and becomes the largest shareholder, would the IMF headquarters be moved to Beijing as the Articles of Agreement require for the largest shareholder. ...

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Fewer than 2% of Pakistanis pay income taxes and some of the powerful landed elite and industrialists pay little or no income taxes. The result is that the government is short of funds to finance needed healthcare and education. This leaves more of these tasks for the mosques and international donors such as the Saudis, and with it brings support for militant groups. Pakistan is dependent on IMF help for its financing needs and the IMF has offered $11 billion in loans. $7.6 billion of this was transferred. But further loans were held back by the IMF since May 2010 till Pakistan made economic reforms in taxation and other areas such as energy subsidies. The US supports this effort. The government's recent effort to raise fuel prices puts the burden on the poorer sections of society. The result was deeply unpopular and the government was forced to withdraw the price increases. This was the only way to maintain the support of coalition parties in the government

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With car prices up Americans are holding on to cars for longer and this has reached 13 years in 2026 up 10% over a decade.  Higher interest rates, sticker shock at prices of new or used cars are causing Americans to get the most out of each car. Car prices on average as per Kelley Blue Book are $50,000 on average and this is up$10,000 in 10 years. Some are driving 2 cars one a newer 4-5 years old model and the other could have 100,000 or upto 200,000 miles if the driver has some knowledge of how to maintain it. Even if they can afford the jump in prices has made people pause before looking for a new car making it take longer to buy, to see if maintenance is the solution. Car dealers are fighting for every piece of the market in the service business, trying special offers, and selling many services all individually priced to wring the last dollar out of the business. Ford Motor is putting ads to change the perception that dealer repair is costlier than smaller repair shops. The certified preowned business is also growing as maintenance takes on a new dimension to increase the life of a good car.  ...

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A seven month long negotiation for the government of Greece with representatives of the EU, the IMF and the ECB is completed in March 2014. A series of structural growth oriented reforms are part of the agreement. Part of the agreement focusses on returning some of the 2.9 billion euro surplus to the Greek people hit hardest in the crisis, a top priority for the government of premier Samaras. This includes homeless with 20 million euros, paying 2.8 billion in debts to suppliers in the private sector, 1 billion euros more than budgeted. 1 billion euros will be used to reduce Greece's debt. In total 500 million euros will go to relief for ordinary Greeks, including members of the police and security forces on low salaries. Social security contributions paid by employers and workers will be reduced by 3.9 percentage points, a step taken to boost wages. The agreement will lead to release of 10 billion euros in funds from the troika of EU,IMF and ECB. European parliament and local elections are in May and this has given the Samaras government a better position to state its case for helping austerity weary Greek citizens....

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John Carney of the WSJ looks at the financial transactions tax proposed by 2016 U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders to pay for high college tution costs.

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Consultants Wood Mackenzie say it will take about 3 years for Libya to get back to normal oil export levels of 1.5- 1.8 million barrels a day. It will take time to rebuild damaged oil refineries after the war against the Gaddafi regime.

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Law Schools in the USA operate as a business like any other business. A class of 25 students at a mediocre school with $43,000 in fees can bring in a million dollars for the law school. Jobs are scarce for new graduates, but law schools try to fudge the numbers to present a rosy future when it is just the opposite. Young students without jobs can have loans upwards of $250,000.

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The Financial Stability Oversight Council puts out a study and recommendations on the Volcker Rule that will serve as a guide to drafting the rules for implementing it. The overall tone of the report is that regulators must be vigilant for ways in which banks may try to evade the rule. Mr Volcker said after reading the report that it is clear and straightforward in its effort to let banks know that you cannot hide proprietary trading in other activities.

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Syria borders Turkey, Israel, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon, placing it in a pivotal geographical location. Because of this unique geography what happens in Syria affects Turkey because of the Kurdish minority in Syria, it affects Lebanon because of Syrian support to Hezbollah, it affects Jordan because of demands for democracy there, and it affects Israel because of the Golan Heights. Meantime the Syrian democracy protests continue with the military crackdown by the Assad government, which has ruled Syria since Hafez Assad, an air force commander, took power in 1970. After his death power was passed on to his son, as has happened much too frequently in the Middle East, resulting in the stifling of any movement for change and participation in government. An added complication is that Assad comes from the minority Alawite sect in a largely Sunni country.

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Hong Kong's economic growth slowed from 2-6-3.0% growth in the past six quarters to 1.8% in the second quarter of 2014. A suppression of the protests would damage Hong Kong's and China's economy at a time when growth is slowing down sharply. This is a risk that the government in Beijing is unlikely to take, says Einhorn.

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How the promise of free or low cost transportation for the 584,000 students who have a free or a half-fare card has helped bring a diverse group of students to New York city schools as students can commte distances to reach their desired school without having to worry about the cost. This can be $700 for a school year for a typical student. Now with budget cuts at New York city's MTA starting in Sept 2011 these students will lose this benefit. Its asymptom of cuts going on across the nation, from fee raises in the University of California system to student fares on the New York City MTA.

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Iraq has $3 billion at the New York Federal reserve Bank in overnight deposits, needed for the Iraqi economy's smooth operation. Loss of access to this account would hurt the Iraqi dinar currency with sharp devaluation. It would also hurt workers, spending and the Iraqi economy.

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One has to separate the posturing and the rhetoric from the true positions of the parties to difficult negotiations between the ECB, IMF, EU, and the Syriza government in Greece. French opinion is reflected in the comments by Finance minister Michel Sapin, who said to reporters in Brussels- "If this government was elected, it's also because Greece has lost 25% of its national wealth in the space of 5 years." The government in Greece needs the 7 billion euro payment from the EU as the last instalment in the bailout package. France's Hollande government and the Renzi government in Italy favor growth measures over the austerity path advocated by Germany. The IMF's Christine Lagarde, a former French finance minister, was quick to differentiate between reforms such as tax collection, which is weak in Greece, with austerity opposed by the Syriza government. Lagarde told the newspaper Le Monde that the reforms on tax collection are not austerity, and need to be done. The IMF has 2.5 billion euro loan due in March, 2015. Debt is also owed to the ECB by July 2015. The ECB holds about $25 billion in Greek government debt. ECB president Draghi announced a 1 trillion euro government bond buying program in Jan. 2015 with a portion of the bond buying and risks to be borne by the ECB. The ECB could help the negotiations by stepping in to buy Greek bonds. A lot depends on the flexibility shown by both sides as the hard work of negotiating a solution on debt relief and structural reforms in Greece- such as the tax collection mentioned by Lagarde- progresses. Because of the deflation facing the eurozone, and economic uncertainty, the huge bond buying effort by the ECB to improve economic conditions, the positions of the EU and the ECB are likely to favor a toning down of the sharp rhetoric during the early days of the Greece crisis in 2011-2012. This would avoid adding additional economic uncertainty to the situation facing the eurozone. Tsipras and Syriza would seek to move to the centre in their positions based on discussions held earlier in meetings between the EU, the ECB and Tsipras before the elections....

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Travel Canada- Tofino and coastal basin of Sooke southwest of Victoria on Vancouver Islandtakes one to the collest wilderness of Canada and the Pacific Northwest,

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New risks are emerging in the shadow banking system as regulators work to make the banks safer. Banks as deposit backed financial firms are different from mutual funds, private equity and other firms that are doing more of the financing for business and home loans in the U.S. financial system. As banks deleverage responding to tighter regulation by increasing capital buffers and reducing assets, it makes the financial system safer, yet creates new risks in the shadow banking system not subject to regulation and not supported by bank deposits the way banks are. A IMF report put out in April 2015 underlines these new risks in the U.S. and European financial system. Mutual funds and exchange-traded funds now rival banks in providing financing to companies with high debt. Total bond holdings worldwide in 2014 were $9.6 trillion, increasing 25% over 2008, and the mutual funds leveraged loans increased 60% to $151 billion in the U.S., 223% in the eurozone to $126 billion, according to the IMF. The IMF points out that these mutual funds and exchange traded funds favor emerging market and corporate junk bonds, and operate in a way where they mimic each others in their investments, creating contagion. With hard to sell securities and the rapid decline in these types of funds in a panic, the effect could be to create contagion across the funds. In the mortgage lending field a similiar process of deleveraging is happening. U.S. banks share of federally guaranteed mortgages from big banks down from 61% in late 2012 to 33% in 2015, other smaller finance companies taking up 51% increasing from 24%, according to an American Enterprise Institute report. Paul Tucker, former deputy governor of the Bank of England, points out the dangers. He says policy makers and regulators are playing catchup with firms in the financial services industry who are constantly looking for gaps in the rules, a game that policymakers and regulators are likely to lose at some point....

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Efforts by the government of prime minister Erdogan to keep Turkey's interest rates at the same rate as inflation, with an effective real interest rate of zero. Erdogan strikes out at what he calls the "higher interest rate lobby." Erdogan's party fears a downturn in the Turkish economy could affect the government's referendum on a new constitution. The IMF sees a high credit growth to GDP ratio as a warning light for countries and Turkey is identified as one of the main countries facing this problem.