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In RealTime posts, PIIE senior staff and colleagues discuss the fast-moving economic news, financial developments, and public policy choices confronting the United States and the world.
Over the last few days protests have overwhelmed Brazil’s largest cities, surprising international observers and, apparently, the government of President Dilma Rousseff. What has caused this outpouring of opposition and what can be done to address the protesters’ anger? The most immediate factor is anxiety about inflation. The protests originated with a movement of students [...]
Second term presidents have unfinished business, so it is no surprise that President Obama plans to speak later this month in Berlin at Brandenburg Gate, where Germany asked that he not speak in 2008. Aside from the occasion of the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” address, Chancellor Angela Merkel [...]
What happens when policy goals in one area collide with goals in another? This occurred when US and European manufacturers of solar panels squared off with environmental and geopolitical interests over cheap Chinese products. In the United States, domestic producers of solar panels succeeded in raising tariffs on Chinese imports, even though their victory made [...]
When Presidents Obama and Xi Jinping meet for a historic private summit this week, the California desert air will be rife with the rhetoric of cooperation and partnership. The reality is that the two countries are engaged in indirect economic skirmishing that could slowly corrode the rules-based multilateral economic system, embodied in the International Monetary [...]
Despite the repeated warnings of commentators too numerous to mention, Europeans have declined to elect ultra-nationalist, anti-establishment majorities in their parliaments and hasten a repeat of 1930s era fascism or communism. This does not mean that the continent is without political problems as the next European elections approach, however. For reasons I will explain below, [...]
Installation of a new government in Italy and the first effects of the newly approved bailout in Cyprus provide some modestly optimistic data points for an otherwise weak euro area outlook. For Italy, a Fresh Start, a Youthful Team, but No Guarantees of Success In Italy, Enrico Letta has taken office as the prime minister, [...]
The next euro country in possible need of an international stabilization program is not Italy but Slovenia. It is suffering from a moderate banking crisis. Newly appointed center-left Prime Minister Alena Bratusek argues that an international assistance program might not be necessary. She might be right, but only if the Slovenian government acts hard and [...]
On March 12, President Vladimir Putin appointed Elvira Nabiullina, 49, chairwoman of the Central Bank of Russia. This is an important political appointment, and a reassuring one. Nabiullina is eminently qualified, and her selection puts the central bank in a safe pair of hands at a time of roiling uncertainty over other aspects of the [...]
In a recent interview with PBS’s Frontline, Lanny Breuer—head of the criminal division at the Department of Justice—appeared to admit that some financial institutions were too big to prosecute. In the “too big to fail is too big to jail” controversy that ensued, lobbyists and other supporters of big Wall Street firms tried all kinds [...]
Hugo Chavez, fiery leader of Venezuela since he took power in a 1999 coup, architect of the 21st century socialism model and dreamer of a united Bolivarian front of South American nations died on March 5 in Caracas. What has been his legacy for Venezuela and the Latin American region? For Venezuela, Chavez’s fourteen years [...]