Michael Pettis: Money Is Not Created Out of Thin Air

A recurring conversation I have with clients concerns the ability of banks to create credit, and of governments to monetise debt, and whether this ability is the solution to or the cause of financial instability and economic crisis. Monetarists and structuralists

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Otaviano Canuto, IMF: Whither Emerging Markets Foreign Exchange Reserves

After a exponential rise in foreign exchange reserves accumulation by emerging markets from 2000 onwards, the tide seems to have turned south since mid-2014. Changes in capital flows and commodity prices have been major factors behind the inflection, with the

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From the editor: The Art of the Doomsayer – Crisis? What Crisis?

Just as a broken watch still tells the right time twice a day, the persistent doomsayer will eventually be vindicated. In the financial world, entire reputations are built on predicting recessions, if not depressions: keep it up long enough and

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IFC: Capital Markets Key to Development

Ending extreme poverty for good and building shared prosperity across the developing world takes money – a lot of money. Take infrastructure: for the foreseeable future, an estimated $50 billion per year is needed in Africa alone to deliver basic

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Ross Jackson: Eurozone – The End Game

It has become clear to most EU citizens, but not yet to the EU leaders, that neoliberal economics has been a total fiasco for the environment, increased inequality, and decreased the overall sense of well-being for over thirty years. When

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Brazil & Argentina: Only One Getting Real

Brazil is just one step removed from facing its reality. With nearly all macroeconomic indicators pointing in the less desirable of directions, the country is facing a downgrade of its sovereign credit rating with S&P on July 28 changing its

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Otaviano Canuto, IMF: How Commodity-Dependent Are Latin American Economies?

The end of the upswing phase of the commodity price super-cycle, after its peak in 2011, has lowered economic growth prospects in most of Latin America. While that broad statement can hardly be disputed, Chapter 3 of the latest IMF

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TD: Making the Environment Part of the Bank’s DNA

When Mike Pedersen joined TD Bank Group in 2007 as Group Head, Corporate Operations, he was tasked with putting an environmental strategy in place for the bank. Early on, he saw the need for full-time executive leadership to drive the

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CFI.co Meets the President and CEO of TD Bank: Mike Pedersen

As green as its corporate logo – or greener still: TD Bank Group, one of the six largest banks in North America and the first to fully offset its corporate carbon footprint, has placed the environment at the core of

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Nigeria: An Economic Upswing Foretold

Oil prices have rebounded from their recent lows and may yet provide temporary relief to Nigeria, allowing the incoming administration of President-elect Muhammadu Buhari to forego some of the proposed budget cuts or, alternatively, increase capital expenditure. Though market watchers

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