Global Economy

Europe’s banks are too feeble to spur growth

It is essential not to make too much of these stress tests and asset quality review. Yes, they are real improvements. But they do not mean that eurozone banks will now drive growth. They still have too little capital for that. More important, the eurozone lacks a credible strategy for reigniting demand. If much of the German policy elite continues to deny this is even a problem, the crisis of the eurozone must remain unresolved. That is a disaster.

IMF’s Olivier Blanchard says global recovery is still ‘weak’

“There is a strong case to be made for more public investment, for demand-side reasons in the short term, and supply-side reasons in the longer run,” says Mr Blanchard. The US and Germany are prime examples, Mr Blanchard said, of countries where there is a backlog of high-return infrastructure projects. He added that their governments should make the most of record-low borrowing costs and reap the large macroeconomic benefits that come from increasing demand.

Once Celebrated in Russia, the Programmer Pavel Durov Chooses Exile

Mr. Putin’s big challenge is falling oil prices, which Mr. Durov calls “the only chance” for economic and political reform.“When the petrol prices are high, there is no incentive for those reforms,” he said. “It can stay like this forever; nobody really cares.”

Mr. Durov has also described himself, with tongue in cheek, as a Pastafarian, a quirky atheistic “faith” that can involve wearing a colander on your head.

Fear of immigration is no reason for Britain to leave Europe

Ex-Italian PM Berlusconi proposes new currency to tackle economic crisis

The Politics of Trade: The Top U.S. Negotiator Answers 10 Questions

Intel to downsize Costa Rica operations, several media sources report

Intel reportedly plans to move its manufacturing operation to Asia and lay off 1,500 employees, according to “well-placed” sources in the company, reported the newspaper El Financiero.

Microprocessors are Costa Rica’s primary export. Over 20 percent of Costa Rica’s exports in 2013 were microprocessors, worth some $2.4 billion, according to statistics from the Foreign Trade Ministry (COMEX).

The problem with TTIP

The TPP is a deep international integration arrangement between the US and 11 other Pacific states, which would cover 40% of world GDP and over 30% of world trade. It seeks to address as series of issues that 21st century commerce, but arguably its most obvious feature is that it excludes China – the world’s largest international trader and before long the world’s largest economy. There are, of course, the ritual genuflections towards ‘open regionalism’ – China can join if only it will agree to the necessary policy requirements – but this is about as much use as saying the Chief Rabbi can dine with you while insisting that the menu contains pork.

By signing TTIP Europe would be tying itself to a static rather than a dynamic part of the world economy and substantially reinforcing the US’s exclusionary policies.

Nuclear power in the European Union

Coal seen as option for European energy security

has governments in Europe beginning to voice support for domestic coal as a way to cut European dependence on Russian natural gas. About a 40 percent of the European Union's natural gas comes from Russia, and a fifth of its oil.

Even Before Apple Tax Breaks, Ireland’s Policy Had Its Critics

Silicon Valley Tries to Remake the Idea Machine

The federal government now spends $126 billion a year on R. and D., according to the National Science Foundation. (It’s pocket change compared with the $267 billion that the private sector spends.) Asian economies now account for 34 percent of global spending; America’s share is 30 percent.

Mr. Balter calls Apple a financial “Rock of Gibraltar"— it is sitting on $150.6 billion of cash

Chief among them is a reliance on small creative teams whose membership remains intact to this day

And Mr. Ive pointed to another enduring value: a complete focus on the product.

A Multibillion-Dollar Question for Airbus and Its A330

While the A330 continues to generate around 40 percent of Airbus’s civilian aircraft profits, new orders for the plane have slowed significantly in recent years.

But with the wait times to receive new planes now stretching to more than six years, airlines have been slower to reach for their checkbooks.

The Mismeasure of Technology

As Moses Abramovitz aptly noted in 1956, this residual is not much more than “a measure of our ignorance.”

As the scientist and philosopher Michael Polanyi would say of such tacit knowledge, we know more than we can tell. CommentsView/Create comment on this paragraph

The Tacit-Knowledge Economy

Why Do Americans Stink at Math?

The Americans might have invented the world’s best methods for teaching math to children, but it was difficult to find anyone actually using them.

In fact, efforts to introduce a better way of teaching math stretch back to the 1800s. The story is the same every time: a big, excited push, followed by mass confusion and then a return to conventional practices.

Much to the consternation of Washington, no European country comes anywhere close to matching the United States in military spending. That includes Germany, whose defense budget of about $44 billion amounts to about 1.3 percent of its gross domestic product, compared with over 4 percent for the United States.