ESG and Of Interest News
IMF-Walkways, Not Walls
December 31, 2024 -Macroeconomics, by definition, focuses on the big picture. It neglects smaller micro developments at the business or sectoral level. In 2007, Edward Leamer, an economics professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, pointed out the high costs of this neglect by arguing that it's meaningless to try to understand business cycles without paying attention to the housing sector. |
| As he argued in a now-famous paper titled "Housing IS the Business Cycle," the housing market is central to understanding why economies go through booms and busts. He pointed out that nearly all recessions in the United States since World War II were preceded by problems in the housing sector. Macroeconomics would, in other words, be better served by building walkways to housing economics rather than simply walling it off. |
Uranium: Canada aims to become World's Biggest Uranium Producer as demand soars!January 8, 2025--Canada is racing to become the world's biggest uranium producer as prices for the radioactive metal surge in response to soaring demand for emissions-free nuclear power and geopolitical tensions threaten supplies. |
New database on critical minerals trade launched to support clean energy transitionDecember 18, 2024-The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the WTO Secretariat have jointly launched a database on trade in critical minerals to enhance transparency regarding these minerals and to support the clean energy transition. The database provides information on trade flows, allows visualizations of trade networks and specialization patterns and compiles data on tariffs and other trade policies for 250 critical minerals and related products across value chains. |
The World's Oldest Bond Just Celebrated Its 400th Birthday And Still Pays an 13.64 Euro Annual YieldDecember 16, 2024--On December 10,1624, a Dutch water authority issued a bond to fund repairs for a critical dike breach. Four centuries later,that bond is still alive,making it the oldest bond in the world. This perpetual bond, issued by Hoogheemraadschap Lekdijk Bovendams, continues to pay interest, reminding us of the enduring power of financial innovation. |
Merchandise trade continues to expand in third quarter of 2024December 13, 2024-World merchandise trade volume rose 1.1% quarter-on-quarter and 3.3% year-on-year, on a seasonally adjusted basis, in the third quarter of 2024, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of moderate trade expansion. |