Economy

• Friday, May 20th 2011 - 19:29 UTC

  Brazil’s Golden Age–or Parade of White Elephants?

  

  by COHA Research Associate Augustus Urschel.
  The 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics.
  Winning the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympic bids continues to have both intended and unexpected consequences for this year’s miracle country. On November 28, 2010, Brazilian police and soldiers seized the Complexo do Alemão, a large favela in the Northern Zone of Rio, from drug lords.

• Friday, May 20th 2011 - 10:42 UTC

  Piñera submits bill to repeal financing military expenditure with copper exports

  

  Chilean President Sebastián Piñera signed a bill which, if approved by Congress, would eliminate a substantial source of revenue for Chile’s Armed Forces. Under current legislation, 10% of all export revenues from Chile’s National Copper Corporation (CODELCO) are directed to the Superior Council of National Defence, to be spent on weaponry and equipment.

• Friday, May 20th 2011 - 10:16 UTC

  China says new IMF chief should better represent emerging economies

  

  The new leadership of the IMF should reflect changes in the world economic order and be more representative of emerging market economies, People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said on Thursday.

• Thursday, May 19th 2011 - 21:47 UTC

  Central banks in ‘gold rush’ to diversify reserves

  

  Mexico, Russia and Thailand added gold now valued at about 6 billion US dollars to their reserves in the first quarter of 2011 as metal prices advanced to a record, the dollar weakened and US Treasuries lost investors money.

• Thursday, May 19th 2011 - 17:28 UTC

  Japan falls into recession following March’s triple blow

  

  Japan's economy shrank much more than expected in the first quarter and slipped into recession after the triple blow of the March earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis hit business and consumer spending and tore apart supply chains.

• Thursday, May 19th 2011 - 17:17 UTC

  After shock in Japan force Honda Brazil to cut 400 jobs and halve production

  

  Japanese car maker Honda Motor Co on Wednesday said it will leave redundant 400 workers and halve production at a factory in Brazil beginning next month because of a shortage of parts from earthquake-affected plants in Japan.

• Thursday, May 19th 2011 - 17:08 UTC

  Pillars of Argentina’s productive model and re-industrialization process are “solid”

  

  Economy Minister Amado Boudou said that the pillars of the ‘productive model’ and re-industrialization process implemented by the Argentine government are solid consolidating social inclusion and distribution.

• Thursday, May 19th 2011 - 10:45 UTC

  Brazil creates Financial Stability Committee to reduce ‘systemic risk’ and support the currency

  

  Brazil’s Central Bank announced Wednesday the creation of a Financial Stability Committee to improve supervision of the nation's financial industry and reduce “systemic risk.”

• Thursday, May 19th 2011 - 10:40 UTC

  Opposition call for disclosure of twenty-fold increase in Brazil’s chief of staff assets

  

  Revelations of a several times surge in the personal wealth of Brazilian government's influential chief of staff have triggered controversy and could drag on and become a major headache for President Dilma Rousseff.

• Thursday, May 19th 2011 - 10:33 UTC

  America’s glossed decade

  

  By Andres Velasco, Former Finance Minister of Chile.
  The Inter-American Development Bank declared last July that this would be “Latin America’s Decade.” A couple of months later, The Economist endorsed that idea, which has since been repeated by countless apologists and experts.