Finance

Few countries in the world can lay claim to having more experience with sovereign defaults than Argentina. Having first failed to pay its debts back in 1827, South America’s second-largest nation has gone on to achieve the undesirable feat on a further seven occasions, with the most recent episode occurring in 2014.

In January, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, unveiled his $222.2-billion budget for the 2020-21 fiscal year for his state. “It’s often said that budgets are statements of values,” Newsom noted in his budget letter to the California State Legislature. “In America’s most populous and productive state, our state budget is more than that.

Some puzzles are fun, while others are not. The sovereign-bank diabolic loop puzzle is definitely not fun for the European governments and banks victimized by it. Trapped in the loop, banks hurt sovereigns, while sovereigns return the favor by hurting banks. Is there a way to break free of this deadly embrace? New research shines a light on a possible channel to freedom that strangely enough originates in the US.

Technology has responded to the call to produce innovations that will slow global warming, creating an arsenal of renewable-energy alternatives to fossil fuels. But distribution of these innovations to developing countries has not kept pace, and they are lagging behind in low-carbon adoption. What needs to be done to transfer and deploy existing low-carbon technologies throughout the globe as quickly as possible? The answer lies in solutions such as trade.

January 13 of this year marked the 10th anniversary of Haiti’s 2010 earthquake, a devastating episode that levelled much of the Caribbean nation, leaving 300,000 dead and displacing a further 1.6 million (more than 10 percent of the total population).

2019 was the year of two consequential free-trade agreements involving Latin American and Caribbean countries: USMCA and EU-Mercosur. How much of a positive impact these South-North agreements will have on especially countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, which have been languishing after the commodity boom, is yet to be seen. But they are likely to be more effectual than the South-South agreements that are in place in the region.

It’s been an eventful last few months for Bolivia, especially since October, when then-President Evo Morales, the country’s leader for more than 13 years, was forced from his position on the back of a disputed election. One of the most economically successful of Latin America’s new crop of leftist leaders who emerged in the new millennium, Morales, a member of the Aymara indigenous group, presided over more than a decade of robust economic growth.

Money laundering is an unfortunate reality for banks with the potential to not only put them in hot water with regulators but destroy their reputations as sound, above-board financial institutions. Data and technology are essential to unmask those villainous customers who use their financial firms’ systems for illicit gain. What are the key areas that bank managers must consider when developing strategies to combat this insidious threat to their businesses?

On the surface, the United States is soaring economically when compared to some of its rivals. But turbulence lurks under the nation’s wings. To a large extent, the Federal Reserve is underwriting this growth through monetary and fiscal channels, leading to instability in money markets. What transpires in the world’s largest economy and reserve-currency holder is guaranteed to impact the welfare of economies elsewhere, so what can we expect next?

Massive amounts of tax revenue are lost to governments due to bank fraud. The United States is fighting back with Qui Tam Economic Whistleblower rewards, a provision of the False Claims Act, recovering billions of dollars from tax cheats since the Act’s revamping in 1986. Watch out. If you work in a bank that handles US citizens’ financial accounts, there could be a qui tam whistleblower working right beside you!