Remarkable stories from the web in a new, easier format.
Speaking at the EU’s Economic and Social Committee, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said on Tuesday that the IMF made a mistake on Greece and Portugal, and that these countries should have had been given more time to reduce their deficits, reports portuguese Público. Specifically Lagarde said that, for lack of studies, the IMF had estimated the fiscal multiplier at 1 or below when in reality it proved to be about 1.7.
Eurointelligence – IMF admits it underestimated the fiscal multiplier
Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS, a global economic research firm, nailed nine of his 10 predictions for the economy in 2013. So, of course, we wanted to get his outlook for the coming year, which has a notably upbeat tone.
“What we’re going to see going into 2014 is that the numbers will progressively get better,” Behravesh tells The Daily Ticker. “And we could see some upside surprises especially in the U.S. but also Germany and China.”
Expect “Upside Surprises” for the Economy in 2014: Nariman Behravesh | Daily Ticker – Yahoo Finance
Buffalo’s defend their kind
http://www.telegraaf.nl/tv/opmerkelijk/22141118/__Buffels_nemen_leeuw_te_grazen__.html
While it may seem like something out of a Star Trek or Jetsons’ episode, the concept of pressing a button and getting an object out a machine is quickly becoming science fact. 3-D printing is here and it’s getting quite popular with manufacturing firms and soon it will be in our homes.
The 3-D Printers Are Just Getting Started (DDD,SSYS,XONE,VJET,HPQ,GE,BBY,FONE,CAJ,LXK,ROBO)
Investors are dumping gold-backed exchange-traded products at the fastest pace since the securities were created a decade ago, mirroring the steepest price drop in 32 years. Holdings in the 14 biggest ETPs plunged 31 percent to 1,813.7 metric tons since the start of January, the first annual decrease since the funds started trading in 2003, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Gold Funds See Unprecedented 31% Slump With World Losing Faith – Yahoo Finance
Paul Ryan defused the likelihood of a government shutdown in January with the bipartisan budget deal he helped strike last week. But on Sunday he did nothing to tamp down the possibility of a showdown over the debt ceiling.
Paul Ryan: Stay tuned for GOP debt ceiling demands – Yahoo Finance
Japanese business confidence has soared to its highest level in six years, according to the Bank of Japan’s latest Tankan survey.
BBC News – Tankan: Japanese business mood rises to six-year high
A new breed of computer chips that operate more like the brain may be about to narrow the gulf between artificial and natural computation—between circuits that crunch through logical operations at blistering speed and a mechanism honed by evolution to process and act on sensory input from the real world.
Processors That Work Like Brains Will Accelerate Artificial Intelligence | MIT Technology Review
Mention “deflation” and the first thing people think of is the Great Depression of the 1930s. But the worst-ever deflation going on right now is in the Bitcoin world. It’s not that Bitcoins are losing value; this year, Bitcoin is up 64-fold. As a result, prices of real things in terms of Bitcoins are plummeting.
The ‘Bitcoin Consumer Price Index’ Shows Massive Deflation – Businessweek
“I think the Fed will stick with their policy,” says Zor Capital’s Joe Fahmy in the attached video. “They’ve made it pretty clear that they want to see certain economic conditions before they cut back on their bond-buying program,” he says, adding that “we’re getting close to it but we’re not quite there yet.”
The Case for No Fed Tapering and the ‘Do-Nothing Rally’ | Breakout – Yahoo Finance
The dangerous link between fragile banks and governments in the euro zone has been detailed in a new transparency report by the European Banking Authority (EBA).
‘Doom loop’ spells danger for Europe’s debt markets
Federal law requires billionaires such as Adelson who want to leave fortunes to their children to pay estate or gift taxes of 40 percent on those assets. Adelson has blunted that bite by exploiting a loophole that Congress unintentionally created and that the Internal Revenue Service unsuccessfully challenged.
Accidental Tax Break Saves Wealthiest Americans $100 Billion – Bloomberg
Political turmoil in Europe, a crash in oil prices to $80 a barrel, U.S. deflation and the popping of the tech bubble as just some of the predictions that Saxo Bank has offered for the coming year.
Soviet-style scare? Extreme predictions for 2014
Nobody has ever accurately measured the number of smartphones infected with malware. Until now.
First Direct Measurement of Infection Rates For Smartphone Viruses | MIT Technology Review
