Recession or Depression: Nadir Has Passed, Recovery Delayed

The shape of things to come seems not to resemble the ‘V’ promised early on in the Corona Recession. With a little luck, growth graphs may yet turn into a hesitant ‘U’ shape. Die-hard optimists took heart from the latest

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Money for Nothing

From a mere medium of exchange, money has turned into a pixie dust that, sprinkled liberally, brings economies to bloom and wards off evil thoughts and spirits. The idea that coin is just a more refined and convenient form of

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Innovate to Overcome: Financing Health Systems Against NCDs

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) account for a growing global health burden — and 41 million mortalities each year. Low- to middle-income countries (LMICs) are disproportionately affected by NCDs. An estimated 97m people (or 1.4 percent of the world’s population) fell below

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Europe’s Golden Eleventh Hour

In true EU fashion, a compromise solution is taking shape for member states unable to power up their economy for the post-corona recovery. French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Angela Merkel have proposed the creation of a €500 billion

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No Quick Recovery for Europe

Just before the weekend, Germany nosedived into a recession after the Statistisches Bundesamt, the country’s statistics bureau, announced a 2.2 percent contraction of GDP over the first three months of 2020. The economy shrank 0.1 percent in Q4 2019. A

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Sobering Words from Fed Chairman Powell

This morning, investors are taking stock after being administered a measure of sobering realism by Jerome H Powell, chairman of the US Federal Reserve Bank. Exchanges in Asia and Europe opened on a low and showed little oomph as the

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Carmakers Running on Fumes

French car manufacturer Renault can be bought for a mere €5.7 billion, a trifling sum in an environment defined by trillions gushing from central banks and state coffers to troubled businesses. Already before the pandemic hit, the company was suffering.

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ISID, McGill University: Updating the DFIs’ Operating Models to Achieve the UN 2030 SDG Agenda

The UN General Assembly set the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) five years ago. The estimated annual amount of investment needed to achieve them is short — by $2.5tn to $3tn. The stakeholders that play a key role in directing and

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Otaviano Canuto: Shapes of the Post-Coronavirus Economic Recovery

Data recently released on the first-quarter global domestic product (GDP) performance of major economies have showed how significant the impact of COVID-19 has been on economic activity and jobs, with large contractions across the board. The ongoing global recession is

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Caught in a Bind: Tax Avoiders Excluded from Corona Relief Funds

Consider a company that has furloughed a quarter of its workforce, and now intends to fire these 1,100 workers, all the while screaming for the UK government to throw it a £150 million lifeline yet unwilling to scrap a £267

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