Finance & Economics
Finance & Economics
Fair Observer's analysis of important economic and financial issues, events and trends in global markets and the world economy.
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360° Analysis / Deflation / Economic decline / economy / Japan / Recession / sinzo abe / Finance & Economics / AsiaJapan’s post-World War Two economy has always been described as one of the most robust and progressive of the modern era. However, recent political troubles, volatile economic circumstances, and natural disasters have forced a more critical examination of the future of Japan. The great Mount Fuji overlooks the Skyscrapers of Shinjuku in the bustling Japanese capital city of Tokyo, but here, the threat of economic collapse also looms large. After the post-war economic miracle that lasted until the early 1990s, Japan’s economy stumbled into the new century marred by a recession, with financial decisions from both households and the Japanese government severely affecting future...
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Tontines in Cameroon are an important part of the informal financial sector that provides individuals who are unable to access money from formal financial sectors with cash. Although this has fostered development and helped individuals overcome extreme poverty, the IFS is yet to address macroeconomic problems. What is the Informal Financial Sector? The Informal Financial Sector (IFS) is a local traditional banking system. The IFS is a practice that is widely known in the majority of francophone Africa as Tontines, which derives from the name of Lorenzo Tonti who vulgarized a similar but not identical practice in France in 1653. In the IFS, individuals with a common social link gather...
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australia / carbon market / carbon trading / energy policy / Japan / United States / Europe / Finance & Economics / Focus Article / Oceania / Environment & SustainabilityGlobal carbon trading could potentially be the most effective economic tool to regulate industrial Co2 emissions in the fight against climate change. As concern about global climate change and carbon emissions mitigation is becoming ever more important, governments and corporations across the world have introduced innovative strategies to reduce steadily rising carbon emissions. Some of these strategies such as carbon taxes, energy efficiency strategies, command and control policies and market-based pollution trading mechanisms have been around for some time. However, they were previously used for other pollution control purposes, besides that of carbon emissions mitigation, with varying...
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360° Analysis / Abe / Deflation / Economic decline / Fiscal debt / Manufacturing / Recession / Finance & Economics / AsiaBy Vaclav SmilIn the last part of this series, Vaclav Smil further discusses the rise and fall of many of Japan’s famous manufacturing companies in the light of Japan’s economic performance over the past two decades In 2007 Japan’s global trade surplus reached about $83bn and despite the subsequent global economic downturn, it was still at $75bn in 2010 (JETRO 2012). The devastating tsunami in March 2011 and the need to buy additional costly energy abroad are mitigating the circumstances that led to the enormous $32bn deficit in 2011. The latest available data show imports surpassing exports during every month for the first four months of 2012 and a total trade deficit of $25bn by the...
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360° Analysis / Deflation / Economic decline / Fiscal debt / Japan / Recession / Shinz Abe / Finance & Economics / AsiaBy Vaclav SmilVaclav Smil discusses Japan’s economic challenges with particular reference to the rise and fall of many of its famous manufacturing companies. Domestic debt ownership has obvious advantages. Above all it allows the country's government finance to be isolated from the outside world and to keep bond yields very low. But there is also an obvious downside as the aging population with rising share of retired people cannot be expected to keep financing this burden for decades to come. Japan's average household saving rate has fallen sharply over four decades: using Cabinet Office data (expressed as shares of disposable household income), it fell from the peak of 18.6% in 1976 to...
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It is that time of the year. Africa’s scorecard for 2012 is out. The results are a mixed bag of goodies — optimism, opportunity, optionality, and optics, and badies — oppression, opprobriousness, oppugns, and opposition. To read Part 1, click here. The Private Sector The private sector was on everyone’s lips at the conference. Not least because it is the engine of the continent’s development, but also because the current economic turmoil in Europe and America has magnified interest in Africa as an investment destination. Since the IMF and World Bank’s push in the 80s for privatization and implementation of free market policies in Africa, and the painful...
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Politics / United States / Europe / Finance & Economics / 360° Context / BRIC / Global Change / Arts & Culture / Middle East / Americas / Business & Entrepreneurship / Africa / Global Security / Asia / Science & Technology / Health / Oceania / Environment & SustainabilityFair Observer's Top 15 articles of 2012. Click here to view the "Fair Observer: The Year in Pictures" photo feature. As we wind down the old year and ring in the new, it is time for some reflections. Like any year, 2012 was packed with events, some of which will go down as historic while others will fade away with time. For Fair Observer, it is a time to thank everyone in our team, our contributors and our readers for taking us another step forward. The past year has confirmed that our community is our greatest source of strength. For years, the world has assumed that rigorous analysis of global issues is possible only if there is a huge...
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360° Analysis / Politics / Finance & Economics / BRIC / AsiaThe election in Gujarat will decide India's economic future. Narendra Modi is not new to controversy. And neither is he fazed by aspersions on his secular credentials. He is seen as a strong, sometimes autocratic, leader who is not too worried about taking the fight to the opposition, be they from within the BJP or from outside. In the run op to the elections in Gujarat, the Congress had, in the last few days of campaigning, dragged into political discourse something Mr. Modi would have been most comfortable not battling (or so one would have thought) – accusations of his complicity in the communal riots of 2002. As the elections in the state draw to a close, it seems...
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Fair Observer's five best Finance & Economics articles of 2012. 1: The Euro Crisis - Where will it Visit Next? — John Bruton The bailout of Spain’s banks over the past weekend was necessary, but it may not be sufficient. 2: The US Dollar: The World’s Currency and the World’s Problem — Prof. Dr. Rolf J. Langhammer Analysis on the unexpected relationship between the dollar’s international acceptability and the US military’s global presence. 3: Brazil’s New Economy — Jeremy Wellington Brazil has captured a decade of steady export growth within an emergent middle class, strengthening the domestic economy and...