News and Analysis: 27 Feb- 9 Mar 12 | EmergingFrontierMarkets.com

Based in: Manila, Philippines

Posted on Fri, 9 Mar 12:

Greece pulls off debt restructuring deal, Der Spiegel, 9 Mar 12:
Greece on Fri averted default after a large majority of private creditors agreed to the country's historic debt haircut. The deal paves the way for a 2nd EU bailout package to be disbursed to Athens. The country says it may now move to force creditors who are not participating to swap their bonds. After months of nail biting, the current acceptance rate clears the path for the biggest debt restructuring that has ever occurred in a country (Greek bond swap - Q&A, Telegraph)

D Acemoglu and J Robinson: Welcome … to the world of failed nations, Authors' Weblog, 22 Feb 12:
Failure is all around us. When you hear of failed nations, you may immediately think of Somalia or Afghanistan, where state institutions have all but completely collapsed. But failed nations are much more ubiquitous. In this globalized and integrated world of ours, there are huge differences in econ prosperity across nations, say MIT and Harvard profs (Preface to Why Nations Fail | Birdsall: Getting to growth - A review of Why Nations Fail, Finance & Dev't)

Taxes - How high is too high?, PBS Newshour, 11 Jan 12:
The debate over taxing the well-to-do -- on one side, the Republicans in Congress, all but 13 of whom have signed a pledge, never raise taxes, certainly not now, and not on the rich. On the other side, Pres Obama, leading most Democrats with a pledge of his own, tax the rich more, above all, those who make more than a million dollars a year. To explore that issue, we ask fmr Reagan adviser Arthur Laffer, tax journalist David Cay Johnston, and Nobel Laureate Peter Diamond

Posted on Wed, 7 Mar 12:

Kenneth Rogoff: The political economy of superstars, Project Syndicate, 5 Mar 12 [courtesy Korea Times]:
I confess to being a huge Jeremy Lin fan. Indeed, my teenage son has been idolizing Lin's skills and work ethic ever since Lin starred on the Harvard basketball team. But, as an economist observing the public’s seething anger over the 'one percenters', or individuals with exceptionally high incomes, I also see a different, overlooked facet of the story, says fmr IMF chief economist/ Harvard prof

Coffee/ Tea Room: Jamaica's famed coffee industry faces hard times, AP, 4 Mar 12 [courtesy Taipei Times/ Taiwan]:
Jamaica produces what connoisseurs rank as one of the world's finest coffees. The moist, cool climate of the Blue Mountains lengthens the growing period from 5 to about 10 months, allowing sugars to develop in the beans that grow inside the berries. Many coffee lovers say the rich brew has a smooth, nutty flavor and a deep, intriguing aftertaste. Today, times are hard for the growers of Jamaica's legendary coffee

Michael Auslin: Japan's strength is lost in translation, Wall Street Journal, 1 Dec 11 [courtesy Amer Enterprise Inst]:
With the euro zone now on the brink of implosion, weakness in the US economy and rising concerns over China's sustainable growth, is Japan the econ tortoise to the rest of the world's hare? Thanks to its macro stagnation, the Japanese economy gets little respect. It shouldn't be - reform could build on the country's strong fundamentals, says Inst Japan studies dir/ fmr Yale Ctr Int'l & Area Studies senior res fellow

Posted on Mon, 5 Mar 12:

Europe should be more flexible in issue of visas for tourists - EU Comm VP, DI-VE/ Malta, 5 Mar 12:
Europe can attract millions of tourists if it becomes more flexible in the issuing of visas to visiting tourists from Russia, China and Brazil. A European Comm. vice-pres said that it is absurd for Europe to keep millions of tourists away for the sake of bureaucracy. Citing Italy as an example, he said that last year when Italy decided to change the entry rules for tourists hailing from China, there was a 100% increase of tourists coming from the area     (Easing the US visa hassle for tourists who shop, Businessweek, 9 Feb)

New report calls for a shift of China's dev't and growth model, World Bank, 27 Feb 12:
A new joint report, 'China 2030: Building a modern, harmonious, and creative high-income society', by a team from the WB and the Dev't Research Ctr of China's State Council, recommends steps to deal with the risks facing China over the next 20 years, including the risk of a hard landing in the short term, as well as challenges posed by an ageing and shrinking workforce, rising inequality, environmental stresses, and external imbalances     (Chinese protester bursts in on WB meeting, Shanghaiist, 1 Mar)

How much oil does Europe buy from Iran? - Iran primer, US Inst Peace, 22 Feb 12:
Iran announced recently that it would halt all oil sales to France and Britain, a response to new EU sanctions on Iranian oil imports due to go into effect this summer. But the top 10 European economies actually acquire only a modest share of their oil from Iran    (The revolutionary economy)

Posted on Fri, 2 Mar 12:

In the wake of the crisis - Leading economists reassess econ policy: A review by P Coggan, Finance & Dev't, Mar/May '12:
US Fed Chair Bernanke in '05 dismissed a question about a housing crash by saying, "It's a pretty unlikely possibility. We've never had a decline in house prices on a nationwide basis." In Mar '07 he opined that "the impact on the broader economy and financial markets of the problems in the subprime market seems likely to be contained." After such failed predictions, a bit of humility might be in order. A conference was held in Mar last year to discuss the postcrisis response, and the papers have duly been gathered in a book

Bank sees progress vs extreme poverty, but flags vulnerabilities, World Bank, 29 Feb 12:
In every region of the developing world, the percentage of people living on less than $1.25 a day and the number of poor declined between 2005/08, acc to estimates released Wed. by the bank. This across-the-board reduction over a 3-year monitoring cycle marks a 1st since the bank began monitoring extreme poverty. An estd. 1.29 bln people in '08 lived below $1.25 a day, or 22% of the pop. of the developing world. "Having 22% of people in developing nations still living on less than $1.25 a day is intolerable," says the bank's poverty reduction group dir

Anders Aslund: How to rebuild Russia, Moscow Times, 20 Dec 11 [courtesy Peterson Inst]:
We all agree. Russia needs to be rebuilt. Ample material is available: talented human capital, lots of cash, and plenty of raw materials. But how should it be done? The downside is that Russia's 2 biggest problems of corruption and authoritarianism are crippling the nation. Each fall, I teach a graduate course at Georgetown U on post-Communist econ transformation. A favorite essay among my students is how to fight corruption in Russia, says Inst senior fellow/ Stockholm Inst East European Econ founding dir

Posted on Wed, 29 Feb 12:

European Central Bank pumps cheap cash into euro-zone banks, AFP, 29 Feb 12 [courtesy EUbusiness]:
ECB again played firefighter in the euro-zone debt crisis on Wed., flooding banks with nearly 530 billion euros ($712 bln) in cheap loans to avert a dangerous credit squeeze. ECB said that 800 banks lined up to borrow at exceptionally low interest rates in its 2nd 3-year long-term refinancing operation (LTRO). That beats the 489 bln euros borrowed by 523 banks in a 1st such operation in Dec, but analysts were cautious about the effects and outlook

Randall Kempner: Learning from microfinance's woes, Weblog-Harvard Bus.Rev, 27 Feb 12:
A few weeks ago, I attended a lecture about microfinance, and got sucker-punched. Expecting to hear a litany of pros and cons about the business, and an exploration of good and bad models, I was instead greeted with a knockout punch: Microfinance doesn't work, at least not in the way we think it does. The pugilist-presenter was David Roodman, a Ctr for Global Dev't fellow and author of a new book, Due Diligence: An impertinent inquiry into microfinance, says Aspen Network of Dev't Entrepreneurs exec dir

UN needs to be 'more efficient' to help poor farmers - Bill Gates, AP, 23 Feb 12 [courtesy HuffPost]:
The Microsoft founder brought his campaign to fight poverty and hunger in Africa and Asia to a forum of the Int'l Fund for Agric Dev't (IFAD), one of 3 Rome-based UN food agencies. He called on the 3 agencies to improve coordination among themselves and to insist that the nations receiving food aid, agric tech, know-how and other assistance show what they have accomplished with periodic reports he likened to 'report cards' or 'score cards' (Miller: The father of the Green Revolution, Stanford's Hoover Inst, 17 Feb)

Posted on Mon, 27 Feb 12:

G20 alert to threat from oil prices, Reuters, 27 Feb 12 [courtesy Pretoria News/ SAfrica]:
Finance ministers and central bankers from the G20 said in a statement on Sun. after 2 days of talks that they welcomed a commitment from producer countries to ensure oil supplies.   Brent crude prices rose to a nearly 10-month high of $125 a barrel on Fri as Europe and Asia cut back on buying Iranian oil and seek out supplies from elsewhere to enforce sanctions designed to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions    (Without stability in Iran, oil costs will skyrocket, Chicago Trib)

Jeffrey Sachs: A World Bank for a new world, Project Syndicate,   24 Feb 12:
The world is at a crossroads: Either the global community will join together to fight poverty, resource depletion, and climate change, or it will face a generation of resource wars, political instability, and environmental ruin. The World Bank, if properly led, can play a key role in averting these threats and the risks that they imply - but only with the right leader, says author of The Price of Civilization: Reawakening American virtue and prosperity (2011)/ Columbia U's Earth Inst dir

Carlo Padoan: The evolving paradigm, OECD Yearbook 2012, 16 Jan 12:
The history of econ policy making has been marked by a succession of 'paradigms'. A prominent paradigm shift took place in the early '90s, when structural policy issues progressively gained prominence while macro policies became more rules-based. The 'Great Moderation' of stable growth and prices since the mid '90s was seen as evidence of the paradigm's success. However, favorable headline stats masked growing underlying imbalances which erupted with the financial crisis of 2008/09. What produced these imbalances?, asks OECD deputy sec-gen/ chief economist

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