Europe is undergoing two major transitions. On the demographic front, many European countries are undergoing rapid population aging as their Baby Boom generations enter retirement, senior citizens live longer and fertility rates remain well below the population replacement level. On the economic front, 15 European countries have adopted the euro
In the 1980s, many commentators ridiculed the extreme supply-side view that across-the-board cuts in income tax rates might raise overall tax revenues. Now we have the extreme demand-side view that the so-called “multiplier” effect of government spending on economic output is greater than 1, says Robert Barro, a senior fellow
There has been much recent research into the overuse of antibiotics by Europeans. Consumption of these drugs varies strikingly across Europe, with Greeks, the heaviest users, taking three times as many as the Dutch, who use the fewest. Rather like trade protection, the popping of an antibiotic offers false comfort
For decades, we’ve been told that rising trade deficits were a bad thing. In November, the US trade deficit shrivelled by 29 per cent. But don’t get the party favours out yet, says Investor’s Business Daily (IBD).
The common wisdom that trade deficits are a sign of weakness and lost competitiveness
Next week, SAs Minister of Finance, Trevor Manuel, will be giving his annual budget speech in Parliament. Although his initial plans to deal with the world economic crisis will be incorporated in the budget speech, his staff will already be working on longer term plans to try and give SAs
Zimbabwe’s central bank will introduce a 100 trillion Zimbabwe dollar banknote, worth about US$33 on the black market, to try to ease desperate cash shortages, the state-run media said last week.
Prices are doubling every day, and food and fuel are in short supply. A cholera epidemic has killed more than
