Debt Ceiling

Here we go again.  The High Streets are full of bargain-hungry shoppers, the Christmas decorations are back in their boxes, New Year’s resolutions are still just about holding, and a certain ski resort in Switzerland is readying itself for an influx of global economic power-brokers.  The World Economic Forum is about to descend, once again, on Davos.

The Eurozone’s enduring sovereign debt crisis has dominated Davos for the past few years, reaching fever pitch as it lurched from one potential calamity to another. The currency’s very survival has been the hot topic in this freezing Swiss town of late.

As Greece looked to be heading for the exit door, and some delegates wondered if it was all a big German conspiracy to control Europe, eyes turned to China as the global economy’s potential saviour.

Continue reading "This year’s big economic story isn’t the Euro…" »

2013 is shaping up as the year of blockbuster economic jargon. Unless you’ve been living under a rock or relaxing on a remote beach (lucky you) you’ve heard of the fiscal cliff. Ad nauseum, no doubt.

But fear not. Let me guide you safely back from the fiscal cliff; let’s bust the debt ceiling together and run hand in hand from any zombie banks we may encounter. Here is my cut-out-and-keep, economic jargon-busting guide to 2013:

FISCAL CLIFF: The name given to the hundreds of billions of dollars of tax hikes and spending cuts that were due to start from January 1 in the United States. Fiscal is the name given to the tax and spend decisions of governments. Cliff refers to the sudden nature of the change in budget settings. Tax hikes and spending cuts of $670 billion, roughly 4.3 per cent of American annual economic output, were set to knock the world’s biggest economy back into recession.

Continue reading "Staving off the cliff by giving debt haircuts to zombies…" »