When economists are evaluating the global economy it is myopic. It depends on how they measure success. If Wall Street is the measure than the view of the world will be pessimistic. If one is looking to the actual performance of individual economies around the world, we are doing just fine WITHOUT adding to Wall Street greed.
I find it more than interesting the IMF is stating things are good and growth is good. The IMF is used to looking within the activity of an actual economy within an actual country. Wall Street's markets are made far more of air than actual performance. The IMF is correct and for the most part Wall Street can't get their hands on it.
Wall Street is welcome to make trillions in profit forever, just count us out.
February 8, 2015
By Danny Hakim
London — Did global output rise or fall last year? (click here)
I find it more than interesting the IMF is stating things are good and growth is good. The IMF is used to looking within the activity of an actual economy within an actual country. Wall Street's markets are made far more of air than actual performance. The IMF is correct and for the most part Wall Street can't get their hands on it.
Wall Street is welcome to make trillions in profit forever, just count us out.
February 8, 2015
By Danny Hakim
London — Did global output rise or fall last year? (click here)
It
all depends on what currency you use to keep track. Measured in
dollars, global growth recorded the first drop since the end of the
financial crisis late in the last decade, declining by nearly 5 percent,
from $77.3 trillion to $73.5 trillion. That’s largely because of the
dollar’s rise, which makes the output of countries with weaker
currencies seem smaller when measured in dollars.
But if you count in euros, growth soared by 13.6 percent.
The International Monetary Fund’s solution to this problem is to use a formula involving purchasing power parity
(PPP), which adjusts for the relative value of currencies and their
purchasing power. The I.M.F. has said world output grew 3.1 percent last
year.
The I.M.F. has defended its methodology after its numbers were criticized as overly optimistic.
Asked to explain its approach, a spokeswoman for the I.M.F. referred to
a previous explanation offered by the fund, which said that “the
greater stability of real exchange rates implied by using” the PPP
formula means an estimate of global growth “is less affected by
short-term changes in the relative importance of countries and regions.”...
