Sri Lanka is among the countries facing the risk of debt distress.
Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP via Getty Images
Almost two-thirds of low-income countries are at risk of debt distress – in part because of higher borrowing costs. And that isn’t the only problem.
‘Default doomscrolling’ again, Mr. Powell?
Kimimasa Mayama/Pool Photo via AP
Major players in the financial system are pondering the unthinkable as the US inches closer to an unprecedented default.
Just hold your nose and make a decision.
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
Big interest rate hikes could cause more market turmoil, while doing too little could have the same effect.
The cracks in the financial system are growing.
John Sommer/E+ via Getty Images
The Fed, Treasury and FDIC acted swiftly to protect depositors and stem any panic, but anxiety continues to grow about the state of the global financial system.
SOPA Images Limited/Alamy Stock Photo
The speed of SVB’s collapse was a surprise but central bankers can learn lessons from this failure.
Staving off both recession and a financial crisis may take more than a hope and a prayer.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
The Fed is also beginning to reduce its massive balance sheet, which is beginning to cause disruptions in the $24 trillion Treasury market.
Ghana has struggled to find balance with its power generation.
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Ghana’s power sector is mired in debt and excess production.
According to the authors, investment banking is a sector particularly prone to unethical behaviour.
Timothy A.Clary/AFP
The regulatory apparatus designed to oversee investment banking is structurally flawed. To spawn ethical behaviour within traders will require nothing less than a sector-wide cultural change.
Both climate change and policies to prevent it can rattle the economy.
Citizen of the Planet/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
It isn’t just the effects of climate change that could destabilize the financial system, it’s also fossil fuel assets losing value. The good news is that central banks can fix it.
Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in 1955.
AP Photo
Market prices are supposed to reflect a company’s fundamental value. When they no longer do, bad things can happen.
COVID-19 has many negative implications for higher education and these will reverberate long after the pandemic has been contained.
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The higher education sector has to re-think what the future of higher education looks like and take steps towards this.
The Chinese army marches past the entrance to the Forbidden City on the occasion of the 2020 session of the National People’s Congress on May 22 in Beijing.
Nicolas Asfouri/AFP
This week, our experts are looking at the major trends in post-crisis globalisation.
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The current pandemic could be the undoing of globalisation if countries fail to cooperate and choose isolationism over a common purpose.
Green energy can be at the heart of government stimulus plans.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Governments can staunch the current economic collapse without returning to the status quo.
Close-up on the circuitry of the Vesuvius quantum computer, announced in 2012 by the Canadian firm D-Wave Systems.
Steve Jurvetson/Flickr
On October 23 Google announced that it built a quantum computer thousands of times faster than classic computers. This could have immense impacts on finance, cryptography and other fields.
Boom times.
Artem Aleshko
A toxic mix of ugly politics and structural economic problems is threatening to tip debt over the edge.
The United Nations spends more on its peacekeeping missions than on anything else.
Youssef Badawi/EPA-EFE
The world body spends more than US$6 billion a year on peacekeeping operations, most of which are in Africa
This is what a financial crisis looks like on Wall Street.
AP Photo/Richard Drew
The Fed cut rates for the third time in as many months – something practically unheard of in a strong economy.
Rating agencies have been at the centre of major financial crises.
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Rating agencies continue to be found wanting, primarily because of their business model where the institution being rated pays. This brings about a conflict of interest which is not easy to resolve.
Office of the Moody’s Corporation ratings agency.
Daniel J. Macy
Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s, and other ratings agencies have a long and storied history, but today they face significant criticism and the future of ratings themselves are under challenge.