The World Bank: Calling for an End to Poverty

With more than a billion people in the world living on less than $1.25 per day, World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim today said this week that extreme poverty was “the defining moral issue of our time,” and he

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What Really Spurred the Great Recession?

Based on the research of Ravi Jagannathan, Mudit Kapoor and Ernst Schaumburg Globalization and the U.S. dollar are as much to blame as banks Many people would no doubt like to forget all about the great recession. The blame has

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Islamic Banking: London’s City Finds New Calling

In a bid to attract a new category of investors and to become a leading centre of Islamic finance, the City of London has assembled a task force to spread the word on Sharia-compliant banking. “The aim of our task

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WTO Forecasts Gradual Recovery Despite Cut in Trade Forecasts

World trade growth in 2013 and 2014 is likely to be slower than previously forecast. WTO economists now predict 2013 growth of 2.5% (down from the 3.3% forecast in April) and 4.5% in 2014 (down from 5.0%), but they say

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Global Interconnections and Spillovers

Extracts from a Speech By Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund U.S. Chamber of Commerce, September 19, 2013 I. The Global Economy Today I recently returned from the G-20 Summit in St. Petersburg—where I know that the Chamber was

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European Commission Confirms Billions Lost in VAT Gap

An estimated €193 billion in VAT revenues (1.5% of GDP) was lost due to non-compliance or non-collection in 2011, according to a new study on the VAT Gap in Member States. The study was funded by Commission as part of

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Looking for an Easy Fix: The Great Banking Crisis Five Years Later

Greed, malfeasance, incompetence and a lack of both regulation and oversight brought the world perilously close to a financial Armageddon when Lehman Brothers investment bank collapsed five years ago this week. The tumultuous event left a gaping hole of well

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Learning the Ropes in Peru: Chinese Companies Engage Local Communities

Chinese companies are learning how to navigate the tricky waters of community politics in perhaps the most unlikely of places: Peru. Here, Chinese businesses have found it next to impossible to buy their way into the local hearts and minds.

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The War on Tax Evasion: How a Good Pursuit Gets Ugly

At first glance, the showdown between the US government and the Swiss banks seems to have produced a satisfactory outcome: Tax dodgers can no longer park their undeclared monies in Switzerland without fear of discovery. Under a new bilateral deal,

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Experts Debate Dubai’s Post-Recession Property Boom – Another Bubble or Sustained Recovery?

More than 750 senior real estate professionals prepped for Global Real Estate Summit and MENA Mortgage and Affordable Housing Congress Dubai, UAE, 11 August, 2013: With all sectors of the Dubai property market now gaining momentum in making a healthy

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