Breakingviews

UK’s big build dreams still dogged by past binge

By Ian Campbell

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

The UK government wants austerity to pave the way for bold modernisation of Britain. In reality its cuts don’t reverse the previous explosion in government spending and there isn’t much money for its big infrastructure dreams.

China’s corporate spying is three-cornered problem

By John Foley

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own)

American prosecutors have targeted Chinese wind turbine maker Sinovel for allegedly stealing secrets from a U.S. rival. The threat of a $4.8 billion fine for a company with total assets of $4.6 billion sounds potent. But it doesn’t address the economic conditions that make China a target for accusations of ideas theft. Call it the corporate espionage triangle.

Review: Tales from China’s wild lending frontier

By Peter Thal Larsen

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own)

Joe Zhang has impeccable timing. The former investment banker’s book about running a small Chinese microcredit firm, “Inside China’s Shadow Banking”, has hit shelves just as concerns about the country’s runaway credit boom are capturing global headlines. Yet despite the title, it’s China’s state-owned banking system that emerges as the tale’s dysfunctional villain.

EU bail-in rules give taxpayer partial protection

By George Hay

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

European taxpayers are gradually being insulated from the risks taken on by their banks. An agreement reached in the early hours of June 27 by European Union finance ministers means that future bailouts will be financed to a greater extent by bank shareholders and creditors, rather than via public money. That represents significant progress.

Fed’s sand will make Asia’s investment wheel creak

By Andy Mukherjee

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own)

Ben Bernanke has just emptied a big bucket of sand into Asia’s $5.5 trillion-a-year investment wheel. That’s bound to lead to a slowdown in economic activity across the world’s fastest-growing region.

France’s poisonous politics bound to hit economy

By Pierre Briançon

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

The string of political scandals hitting all French mainstream political parties couldn’t come at a worst time. The economy is in a recession, and fiscal austerity is amplifying the structural weaknesses which developed long before the financial crisis.

Is Ben Bernanke wrong, or is QE impotent?

By Agnes T. Crane and Edward Hadas

The authors are Reuters Breakingviews columnists. The opinions expressed are their own.

Investors are clearly upset, but it’s hard to know why. The chronology is clear. The rout in global markets – from U.S. Treasuries to copper, from Shanghai stocks to junk bonds – started after Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, suggested that the American economy might soon be strong enough to need less monetary support from the central bank. The causality is another matter.

Asia’s pain unevenly spread as China slows

By John Foley

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own)

Asia’s falling markets reflect the belief that a slowdown in China will take its toll on the region. But things aren’t so straightforward. Look at what proportion of the region’s largest economies goes to China, and how important those exports are to domestic GDP. Despite a decade of rapid growth, the world’s second-largest economy has had a smaller impact on its neighbours than might be expected.

Review: What’s wrong with economics, anyway?

By Edward Hadas
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Economics is known as the dismal science. Thomas Carlyle coined the phrase in the 19th century to describe the then nascent discipline’s view of mankind as calculating and base. After reading Guy Routh’s “The Origin of Economic Ideas”, the most dismal aspect of the field appears to be something else: a long tradition of putting ideology first and observation almost nowhere.

Germany removes one barrier to EU banking union

By George Hay

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Germany has removed one of the barriers it had erected to euro zone banking union. The 17 finance ministers of the monetary union agreed on June 20 to allow their 500 billion euro European Stability Mechanism to recapitalise directly the banks of needy member states. That can be taken as a reassuring sign of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s pragmatism.