The Brazilian government has announced plans for $7 billion in spending cuts and $8 billion in additional taxes aimed at plugging the hole in the country’s 2016 budget. The austerity package is designed to balance the harsh economic downturn of the seventh-largest economy, whose sovereign credit rating was cut to ‘junk’ status last week. The measures are going to freeze public sector salaries,... 

Mass anti-government protests organized by the civic platform Dignity and Truth (DA), began in the Moldovan capital of Chisinau Sunday. Since September 5, protesters in Chisinau have been demanding the resignation of the Moldovan government and the chief prosecutor, while also calling for early parliamentary elections and a prompt action to tackle corruption in the country. “Today we are going... 

The Congressional Budget Office predicts a negative evaluation of the US revenues in the coming 10 years. The analysts noted, that despite the current growth of the country’s revenues, the problem of a huge public debt still cannot be solved, that can generate a twofold deficit of the state budget by 2025. Government revenue will continue to increase, and will reach $5 trillion by 2025, which... 

Bloomberg’s Consumer Comfort index in the US shows a record-low level of the Americans being content with the state of economy. According to the report, 70% of the US residents estimate their country’s state of economy as “negative”. The number of those being sure that the US economy is “excellent” also amazes. That is only 1%. The rest of 29% believe that the economy... 

The United States is reported to be working with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a backup plan to rescue the Greek economy as economists throughout the world queue up to criticize the latest bailout plan as totally unworkable. The sheer folly of the latest bailout plan for Greece was summed up last week by Finland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Timo Soini who said that, in agreeing... 

Banks made an additional 1.28 trillion yuan worth of loans to China in June. Things are not looking for for China. It seems like Beijing has averted a crisis as far as their stock markets are concerned with some heavy-handed intervention. But their corporate debt has already reached $ 16.1 trillion and is still rising. Their corporate debt is currently at 160% of their GDP and that is twice as much... 

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has recently called on Ukraine and its creditors to continue negotiations on the country’s debt, but the editor-in-chief of the business and finance media company thinks that Kiev should instead concentrate on “fixing what is absolutely, chronically broken economy” and launch immediate reforms. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has called on Ukraine... 

The cost of global war in the year 2014 reached $14.3 trillion, or 13.4 percent of the global gross domestic product, a report by the Institute for Economics and Peace says. Last year, the cost of global conflict equaled the combined economies of Britain, Germany, France, Brazil, Canada, and Spain, according to a recent report by the Australia-based group. The statistics mark a 15.3-percent spike... 

France has unveiled a multibillion euro cost cutting plan to be executed over two years in order to press down its deficit below the European Union’s cap. The Finance Ministry revealed on Wednesday that the country would be shaving €9 billion (USD 9.60 billion) off costs through the plan. Accordingly, some €4 billion (USD 4.26 billion) will be trimmed from the budget this year, including through... 

Debt and (not much) deleveraging, McKinsey Global Institute The entire world is in debt, huge debt… a debt of 199 trillion dollars, 18 of which is own just by America alone, but the question is, to whom do we owe such a vast unimaginable sum of money? To companies? To a small 1%? Maybe communism had it right with its economic equality after all. How did the world end up in this hellhole anyway?... 

The dollar shows a steady growth with regard to other until recently stable world currencies. But is the dollar that strong? After all, the U.S. has a state debt of 18 trillion dollars and can declare a technical default at any moment. Recent rise of the Swiss franc showed that the dollar is far from being a safe haven for investors. Global capital flows are extremely unstable It is important to understand... 

A recent column in US News & World Report, The Swiss Gold Rush by Pat Garofalo, its assistant managing editor for opinion, is subtitled “A push for the gold standard in Switzerland is symbolic of Europe’s rising right wing.” US News & World Report hereby descends from commentary to propaganda. Who edits its editors? To begin with, the Swiss referendum, decisively and sensibly... 

Demonstrators protest in central Rome, Italy, on November 14, 2014. Several Italian cities, including the capital city of Rome and northern city of Milan, have witnessed confrontations between police forces and anti-austerity protesters. On Friday, trade unions and students staged strikes and rallies in more than 20 cities against labor market and other reforms. Officers were pelted with eggs and red... 

China has surpassed the US in terms of GDP based on purchasing power parity (PPP), becoming the largest in the world by this measure, International Monetary Fund estimates show. In 2014 China reached $17.6 trillion or 16.48 percent of the world’s purchasing-power-adjusted GDP, while the US made slightly less, 16.28 percent or $17.4 trillion, the FT reported citing IMF data. PPP is recognized as... 

The third and final estimate (until the annual GDP revisions) of first quarter 2014 real GDP growth released June 25 by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis was a 2.9% contraction in GDP growth, a 5.5 percentage point difference from the January forecast of 2.6% growth. Apparently, the first quarter contraction was dismissed by those speculating in equities as weather related, as stock averages rose...