Coal Protesters ignore benefits of coal exports

The banks’ plight arises from mounting losses on their loans. Between the middle of 2012 and of 2013, the ratio of non-performing to total loans rose from 13.2% to 17.4%, which is the highest level in the euro zone after Greece and Ireland (see chart). The bad debts have been incurred predominantly through lending to businesses.

Only the state can provide the funds needed to recapitalise the banks. It wants them to transfer a big chunk of their bad loans to a state-run “bad bank”, for much less than their original value.

In this respect Slovenia is a textbook case of the problem that has plagued other parts of the euro zone: the link between weak banks, which governments end up recapitalising at great expense, and weak government finances.

European Union Suspends Talks With Ukraine Over Trade Deal

The Russia Left Behind

Multilateral trade pacts are increasingly giving way to regional ones

Applying Creativity to a Byproduct of Oil Drilling in North Dakota

Russian bailout masks Ukraine's economic mess

We still need to learn the real lessons of the crisis

Social Accounting Matrices for the Regions of Russia, 2001

Eurozone fund chief dashes Greek hopes for debt deal

Europe’s Ukrainian Blunder

U.N. Says Aid Crisis Worsens in Central African Republic

Lethal Malfeasance in Malawi

a $50 million corruption scandal

Government investigators believe $500 million in donor money was lost to graft during the eight-year reign of Ms. Banda’s predecessor.

Bracing for Carp in Great Lakes, but Debating Their Presence

Boeing Workers Approve 8-Year Contract Extension

A Lonely Quest for Facts on Genetically Modified Crops

Unemployed in Europe Hobbled by Lack of Technology Skills

Africa’s Structural Transformation Challenge

As researchers at the African Center for Economic Transformation in Accra, Ghana, put it, the continent is “growing rapidly, transforming slowly.”

Fewer than 10% of African workers find jobs in manufacturing, and among those only a tiny fraction – as low as one-tenth – are employed in modern, formal firms with adequate technology. Distressingly, there has been very little improvement in this regard, despite high growth rates. In fact, Sub-Saharan Africa is less industrialized today than it was in the 1980’s. Private investment in modern industries, especially non-resource tradables, has not increased, and remains too low to sustain structural transformation.