WEF World Economic Forum

The Report 2013-2014 assesses the competitiveness landscape of 148 economies, providing insight into the drivers of their productivity and prosperity. The Report series remains the most comprehensive assessment of national competitiveness worldwide. WEF_GlobalCompetitivenessReport_2013-14

The report’s Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) places Switzerland at the top of the ranking for the fifth year running. Singapore and Finland remain in second and third positions respectively. Germany moves up two places (4th) and the United States reverses a four-year downward trend, climbing two places to fifth. Hong Kong SAR (7th) and Japan (9th) also close the gap on the most competitive economies, while Sweden (6th), the Netherlands (8th) and the United Kingdom (10th) fall.  

The United States continues to be a world leader in bringing innovative products and services to market. Its rise in the ranking is down to a perceived improvement in the country’s financial market as well as greater confidence in its public institutions. However, serious concerns persist over its macroeconomic stability, which ranks 117 out of 148 economies.

In the cartoon above, Ms. Merkel says to Mr. Schwab (founder of the WEF): “Great, all the snow this year!” Mr. Schwab responds: “That’s not snow, it’s European debt paper!”

The global economy could be in the early stages of another crisis. Once again, the US Federal Reserve is in the eye of the storm.

As the Fed attempts to exit from so-called quantitative easing (QE) – its unprecedented policy of massive purchases of long-term assets – many high-flying emerging economies suddenly find themselves in a vise. Currency and stock markets in India and Indonesia are plunging, with collateral damage evident in Brazil, South Africa, and Turkey.

The Fed insists that it is blameless – the same absurd position that it took in the aftermath of the Great Crisis of 2008-2009, when it maintained that its excessive monetary accommodation had nothing to do with the property and credit bubbles that nearly pushed the world into the abyss. It remains steeped in denial: Were it not for the interest-rate suppression that QE has imposed on developed countries since 2009, the search for yield would not have flooded emerging economies with short-term “hot” money…
The Global QE Exit Crisis 

Federal Reserve Is In The Eye Of The Storm

Muriel Siebert, who became a legend on Wall Street as the first woman to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange and the first woman to head one of the exchange’s member firms, died on Saturday in Manhattan. She was 80 and committed among other things to financial literacy and the Highwater program featured on this site.
Muriel Siebert

Women constitute approximately 50% of the country’s 7 million people but disproportionally represent less than 30% of total financial services portfolio in the country. They represent an untapped population of economically active low-income businesswomen, who are also household financial managers, making a large volume of transactions. All participating commercial banks and micro banks concurred that women represent an important market segment for them and at today’s workshop, made a commitment to increase outreach to women to 50% of total portfolio by 2015.
How Can We Deepen Womens Access to Financial Services

Line Waelgaard. Papua New Guinea. Winnie Weoa. This shows the daily life of village women in the highlands of Papua New Guinea.