Free Republic

The chief executive of the Institute of International Finance warned Tuesday that policymakers need to swiftly address record levels of global debt, describing the brewing crisis as a “huge fiscal problem.” IIF CEO Tim Adams sounded the alarm on rising levels of debt while speaking to CNBC’s Silvia Amaro at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. His comments come at a time when the issue has largely been overshadowed at the WEF’s annual meeting, which runs through to Friday, with the rise of artificial intelligence and conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine high on the forum’s agenda. “We...

Zhao Jian, a professor at Beijing Jiaotong University and railway expert, recently expressed alarm at the unsustainable finances of China’s high-speed railway system, remarking that it was an economic “gray rhino.” The term is used to refer to an obvious yet ignored threat.Beijing Jiaotong University is China’s top university for transportation science and technology, according to an academic ranking conducted by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy in 2018. The school receives funding from China Railway (formerly China’s Ministry of Railways, now a state-owned firm), city governments, and metro companies all around China.Zhao has worked for Beijing Jiaotong University since 1982 and has led...

The seeds of California's current crisis were planted more than 30 years ago, when voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition 13. ... Property tax rates were capped, and homeowners were shielded from increases in their tax assessments even as the value of their homes rose. – Paul Krugman, New York Times columnist Well, the attribution should say, "Paul Krugman, New York Times columnist and recipient of the Nobel Prize for economics." The latter distinction should qualify him to hold forth on California politics and economics, even from his chambers in Princeton University's distant, ivy-covered halls. This is true, even though he is...