Global Business News

The rise in global stock prices from early March to mid-June is arguably the primary cause of the surprising positive turn in the economic environment. The $12,000bn of newly created corporate equity value has added significantly to the capital buffer that supports the debt issued by financial and non-financial companies. Corporate debt, as a consequence, has been upgraded and yields have fallen. Previously capital-strapped firms have been able to raise considerable debt and equity in recent months. Market fears of bank insolvency, particularly, have been assuaged.

Read more: http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/greenspan-fears-inflation.html

Tags: Alan Greenspan, The Federal Reserve System, Inflation, Global Economic News, Medicare, Fiscal Policy, Economics, US Economy, Bond Yields, Interest Rates, Creative Destruction, Free market forces, 

The World Bank has cut its 2009 global growth forecast, saying the world economy will shrink by 2.9 percent and warning that a drop in investment in developing countries will increase poverty.

"The global recession has deepened," the Washington-based multilateral lender said in a report.

Read more: http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/world-bank-cuts-2009-global-growth.html

Tags: World Bank, GDP, Investment, Credit, China, India, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caribbean, North Africa, Global Economic News, Developing Economies, Global Trade, Global recession, Unemployment, Global Development News, Global Blog Network, Economics, 

China has introduced an explicit “Buy Chinese” policy as part of its economic stimulus programme in a move that will amplify tensions with trade partners and increase the likelihood of protectionism around the world.

In an edict released jointly by nine government departments, Beijing said government procurement must use only Chinese products or services unless they were not available within the country or could not be bought on reasonable commercial or legal terms.

Read more: http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/buy-china-policy-set-to-raise-tensions.html

Tags: Protectionism, Trade Surplus, Economics, Chinese Stimulus Package, Buy-China provisions, EU Chamber of Commerce in China, Global Economic News, Procurement, Joerg Wuttke, Squire Sanders & Dempsey Beijing, 

Even liberals are getting antsy about debt and government spending. Stop worrying. The deficit hawks are wrong.

By Robert Reich

It's the kind of thing I expect to hear from deficit hawks and chicken littles -- from the self-described "fiscally responsible" right, from the scolds Ross Perot and Pete Peterson, from my former cabinet colleague Bob Rubin. But yesterday I was shown slides developed by the putatively liberal Center for American Progress intended to make the point. And today's front page story in the New York Times, by the eminent David Leonhardt, entitled "Sea of Red Ink: How It Spread From A Puddle," puts the issue right before our progressive noses, so to speak.

The Great Debt Scare is back.

Read more: http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/great-deficit-scare-returns.html

Tags: Robert Reich, Salon, Debt, Deficit, Economics, Obama, New York times, Center For American Progress, Republicans, Democrats, GDP, Wall Street, Global Economic News, Bill Clinton, Budgets,