What the IMF’s plan to disburse $650bn in special drawing rights means for poor countries
Jul 17th 2021WASHINGTON, DCTHE IMF has not exactly stood on the sidelines during the covid-19 pandemic. Since the onset of the crisis, it has extended loans worth about $130bn to 85 countries and provided debt-service relief to some poor economies. Yet given the severity of the pandemic and the IMF’s ample balance-sheet—its lending capacity was…
Why investors are worried about a profits squeeze in 2022
Jul 17th 2021I T IS MID-JULY, so the football season in England will start soon. You probably hadn’t noticed it had ended. The earnings season, when listed companies in America reveal their quarterly results, comes round with similarly tedious frequency and also never seems to stop. The second-quarter season that kicks off this week ought…
South Africa reels from the worst violence since apartheid
Jul 15th 2021JOHANNESBURGSHOPPING CENTRES should be a symbol of South Africa’s progress. Their core customers, as well as their staff, are the black middle class that has grown since apartheid ended. In the past week, however, looters have destroyed malls in cities such as Pretoria, Durban and Johannesburg. Thousands of criminals have ransacked shops, departing…
Sport is still rife with doping
Jul 14th 2021AS OLYMPICS GO, the 2020 games, scheduled to start in Tokyo on July 23rd, are shaping up to be among the strangest in the competition’s history. Because of covid-19, even their name is out of date, for they are taking place a year late. And contagion-prevention means most stadiums will be empty of…
New running shoes are smashing records
Jul 14th 2021PLATFORM SHOES are back in fashion, at least in athletics. Many of the long-distance runners at the Tokyo Olympics, which begin on July 23rd, will arrive at the starting line sporting footwear with a distinctive chunky-looking heel. It will be more than just a fashion statement. The new shoes offer such a big…
Banks on Wall Street report bumper second-quarter profits
BANK BOSSES were full of good cheer as they reported their second-quarter earnings on July 13th and 14th. “The consumer…their house value is up, their stocks are up, their incomes are up, their savings are up…they’re raring to go,” said Jamie Dimon, the boss of JPMorgan Chase, when analysts asked about the risk that economic…
The EU proposes a carbon tariff on some imports
Jul 14th 2021WHEN THE European Union established its cap-and-trade scheme for pricing carbon emissions in 2005 it faced a tricky design problem. Making polluting firms buy permits puts them at a disadvantage in global markets. Companies might respond to the scheme by moving their dirty activities offshore, causing “carbon leakage”. And if producers in places…