Traders oust iShares from ETF top spot
June 9, 2016--After topping the flow charts every year since 2012, the world's biggest ETF manager has been forced to settle for second place so far in 2016.
Source: Financial News
OECD Business and Finance Outlook 2016
June 9, 2016--It is seven years since the global crisis and despite easy monetary policy, financial regulatory reform, and G20 resolutions favouring structural measures, the world economy is not making a lot of progress.
Indeed, the responses to the crisis seem mainly to have stopped the banks from failing and then pushed the many faces of the crisis around between regions-currently taking the form of excess capacity in emerging markets.
Source: OECD
China Turns To Islamic Finance To Drive Economic Initiative
June 9, 2016--In 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping unveiled the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road initiative now known as One Belt One Road, (OBOR) in order to actively develop connectivity and economic cooperation with countries mainly between China and Eurasia.
The initiative aims to build a community of shared interests, destiny and responsibility with mutual political trust, economic integration and cultural inclusiveness.
Source: Zawya.com
World Gold Council-Working towards a common accounting framework for gold
June 8, 2016--This paper reviews the different approaches to gold accounting demonstrated by central banks and discusses the elements of a common approach for central banks.
Research for this paper included a review of the financial statements of 98 central banks and two international financial institutions that hold gold; BIS and IMF.
view the Working towards a common accounting framework for gold paper
Source: World Gold Council
Cost of Violence Infographic
June 8, 2016--How much does violence cost the world each year? $13.6 trillion in 2015.
Source: visionofhumanity.org
The 2016 Global Peace Index Report
June 8, 2016--The Global Peace Index Records a Historically Less Peaceful and More Unequal World
The 2016 GPI report provides a comprehensive update on the state of peace. It shows that amidst the global deterioration the world continues to spend enormous resources on creating and containing violence but very little on peace.
The key to reversing the decline in peace is through building Positive Peace-a holistic framework of the key attitudes, institutions and structures which build peace in the long term.
The UN's Sustainable Development Goal 16, which focuses on peace, justice and strong institutions is critical to focusing the international community on the goal of attaining a more peaceful world.
view the The Global Peace Index 2016 Report
view the 2016 Global Peace Index
Source: www.visionofhumanity.org
IEA sees major shifts in global gas trade over next five years
Massive growth in LNG supplies despite weak gas demand and low prices
June 8, 2016--The next five years will bring a reshaping of the global gas trade, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Wednesday in its 2016 Medium-Term Gas Market Report.
New liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies are coming online just as demand growth in some major markets weakens, resulting in major shifts in global gas trade patterns. A weak outlook for Japan and Korea-the world's top two LNG buyers-means that new supplies will need to find other markets. China, India and ASEAN countries will emerge as key buyers.
Source: International Energy Agency (IEA)
Franklin CEO: consolidation is coming
June 8, 2016--The explosive growth of cheaper, passive funds will force asset management industry to consolidate.
Source: SEC.gov
Which regions will build the Silicon Valleys of the future?
June 8, 2016--The idea of a company growing so quickly that it doubles it revenues in under two years immediately brings to mind the Silicon Valley tech giants.
Yet such growth rates are far from being the preserve of companies in the developed world. In fact, "hypergrowth" is being cultivated in many regions around the world.
Source: World Economic Forum
IMF Working Paper-Global Financial Conditions and Monetary Policy Autonomy
June 8, 2016--Summary: Is the Mundell-Fleming trilemma alive and well? International co-movement of asset prices takes place alongside synchronized business cycles, complicating the identification of financial spillovers and assessments of monetary policy autonomy.
A benchmark for interest rate comovement is to impose the null hypothesis that central banks respond only to the outlook for domestic inflation and output. We show that common approaches used to estimate interest rate spillovers tend to understate the degree of monetary autonomy enjoyed by small open economies with flexible exchange rates. We propose an empirical strategy that partials out those spillovers that are associated with impaired monetary autonomy. Using this approach, we revisit the predictions of the trilemma and find more compelling evidence that flexible exchange rates deliver monetary autonomy than prior work has suggested.
Source: IMF