US
(April 2013) Bayern Munich, the German football club, stunned Spain's Barcelona on Tuesday night with a 4-0 win in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final. However, Uli Hoeness, Bayern Munich's president, has been getting public attention for issues other than sport. He has admitted that he hid money in a Swiss bank account for years without paying taxes on it. It's still not clear exactly how much he was hiding, nor how much he owes in back taxes. But media reports suggest that amount could be several million euros. By turning himself in to tax authorities, Hoeness might get around a sentence which could have included a hefty fine or even a prison sentence. The issue of personal tax havens, tax evasion and massive corporate tax avoidance have been receiving serious attention in recent months from politicians and in France, Jérôme Cahuzac, the budget minister, resigned over allegations of tax fraud, holding a Swiss bank account and money laundering with funds later sent to Singapore to avoid disclosure. Germany, the UK and France are pushing the Group of Eight and the Group of Twenty countries to agree measures that would reduce corporate tax avoidance and earlier this month, Herman Van Rompuy, European Council president, said tax evasion and fraud had been put on the agenda of next month's summit of European Union leaders, saying the region could no longer afford to be complacent when about €1tn is lost in EU member states to tax evasion every year.
(January 2013) Global research-and-development (R&D) spending by business and governments is expected to grow this year but activity in Europe and the US is expected to fall in 2013, reflecting expected sluggish economic growth while China is expected to achieve R&D-spending parity with the US in 2022.
(January 2013) Switzerland's oldest private bank pleaded guilty to a criminal conspiracy charge in the US on Thursday and admitted that it aided wealthy Americans for years to avoid millions of dollars in taxes by hiding their income in secret accounts abroad. After sentencing in March, the bank will be dissolved. Just before Christmas, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, Swiss finance minister, indicated a willingness to discuss possible forms of an information exchange with the European Union over banking data but her comments unleashed protests by centre-right and rightwing parties as well as the Swiss Business Federation.
(December 2012) In a live Google+ Hangout on December 14th The Economist discussed predictions for the year ahead, Our editors took questions from readers about what 2013 could hold. Daniel Franklin, editor of The World in 2013, answered questions on the euro crisis, the future of technology, higher education, and world politics.
(December 2012) Manufacturing in the US and the Eurozone was in contractionary mode in November 2012 but gains elsewhere led by China, signalled a move to stabilisation.
(November 2012) On the basis of 2005 purchasing power parities (PPPs), China's economy is projected to surpass the Eurozone in 2012 and the United States by 2016, to become the largest economy in the world, and India is about now surpassing Japan and is expected to surpass the Eurozone in about 20 years. Per capita GDP (gross domestic product) or income is a different story and and as regard timing, John Kenneth Galbraith, the late American economist, once said: "The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable."
(November 2012) The downturn in the global manufacturing sector moderated in October 2012. The JPMorgan Global Manufacturing PMI (Purchasing Managers' Index) - - a composite index produced by JPMorgan and Markit in association with ISM (US Institute for Supply Management) and IFPSM (International Federation of Purchasing and Supply Management) - - rose for the second month running to reach 49.2, its highest reading during the current five-month period of contraction.
(October 2012) The downturn in the global manufacturing sector continued in September 2012, following further contractions in both output and new orders.
(October 2012) Global trade is stalling as economic growth slows in major regions of the world. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has signalled that it will lower its global economic growth to just over 3% this year, according to projections to be released at its annual meeting in Tokyo next week. Trade volumes fell in June and July.
(September 2012) The global manufacturing downturn gathered pace in August 2012, with rates of contraction in output and new orders accelerating to the fastest since mid-2009.
