Stalled: Brazilian economy is on the verge of vigorous growth
- disappointing numbers: 0.2% instead of 0.4% second term growth, 0.6% instead of 1.2% expansion due to tax cut.
- payroll taxes cut in electricity tariffs does not work well: government’s high-handed approach and hostile attitude towards the private sector.
- financial services, hit by higher defaults, fewer loans, tighter profit margins.
- good news: household consumption still growing.
Life and death struggle: Chinese anti-corruption campaigns again
- keep strict controls on microblogs in cases of those “smear” on the country, while often yield to public taste for blood in cases of local corruptions.
Free exchange: model effect of climate change on economic activity
- restrictions on movement increase welfare costs. beneficial to northern section of the globe due to increase in agricultural growth and trades.
- Prof Kahn (UCLA): productivity of rich places often has little to do with unique geographical advantages.
- carbon taxes raise the relative income of innovative cities that rely more on ideas.
- worries about market failures: areas that lose values may become magnets for poor families, may set the stage for humanitarian disaster.
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