Last week, Brazil announced that it is finally eliminating its most prominent tax on foreign portfolio investment. This reversal is the most recent reminder of the negative effects of capital controls. Capital controls are measures, sometimes in the form of taxes or fees, that limit the movement of capital into …
A last-minute accord struck early Monday morning between Cypriot authorities and International Monetary Fund and European Union officials is being hailed in Brussels as a breakthrough. In reality, the agreement simply papers over serious structural fractures within the eurozone and is likely nothing more than a temporary solution to long-term …
Argentina’s government is having a terrible week. The bad week started when the nation was censured by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on February 1 for cooking the statistical books and underreporting the rampant inflation devouring Argentineans’ and foreign investors’ money—to the tune of $6.8 billion. Unless the nation cleans …
You may be wondering whether anyone, after all, went over the fiscal cliff at the end of December. News reports about Congress’s last-second legislation certainly conveyed the impression that everyone stepped away from that fateful edge. However, if you are under the age of 35, that rushing sound you hear …
Followers of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have long joked that the fund’s acronym stands for “It’s Mostly Fiscal.” For a long time it has helped bail out basket-case economies with severe fiscal deficiencies, such as Greece, Russia, and Argentina. But a recent report shows that the IMF is now …
A dire prediction hit the news yesterday: A date has been set for the end of the “Age of America,” — i.e., when China’s economy will overtake the United States. The news comes by way of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast that shows China’s economy surpassing America’s by 2016. Though there …
The Washington Post reported today that the International Monetary Fund and various world governments warned U.S. officials years ago that “escalating financial problems” in the United States “had to be addressed quickly to forestall a larger threat to the world economy, but those urgings were discounted.” The Post went on …
