G20 officials expected to discuss uneven economic recovery from COVID-19 crisis ROME Bookmark Please log in to listen to this story. Also available in French and Mandarin. Log In Create Free Account
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LENA MUCHA/The New York Times News Service
The world’s financial leaders will discuss on Wednesday how to coordinate policies to prevent their virus-battered economies emerging from recession at highly different speeds, officials said ahead of the virtual meeting.
When finance ministers and central bank governors of the world’s top 20 economies hold their video-conference the patchy response to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis will be high on their agenda, officials from the Italian presidency said.
The Globe and Mail Paul Wiseman Bookmark Please log in to listen to this story. Also available in French and Mandarin. Log In Create Free Account
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JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images
The rollout of COVID-19 vaccines and vast sums of government aid will accelerate global economic growth to a record high this year in a powerful rebound from the pandemic recession, the International Monetary Fund says in its latest forecasts.
The 190-country lending agency said Tuesday that it expects the world economy to expand 6 per cent for 2021, up from the 5.5 per cent it had forecast in January. It would be the fastest expansion for the global economy in IMF records dating to 1980.
Longtime gold bashers are gloating over the precious metal’s recent price slump. Gold prices have declined more than 10% in the first quarter of 2021. But the perma-bears shouldn’t feel vindicated. After all, anyone who heeded their advice missed out on gold’s record run in 2020 – and on many years of outperformance since 2001.
While gold bugs are often accused of having an unhealthy obsession with the metal, the “anti-gold” bugs reveal a deep-seated bias that can only be explained as irrational or dishonest.
Financial Advisers Don’t Get Fees Recommending Physical Gold
It’s no mystery why many who work in the financial industry hate gold. They are in the business of pushing paper assets, and physical precious metals held outside of bank and brokerage accounts generate no fees for them.
Bullish run in stocks that lost steam before the close – does that qualify as a reversal? Given the other moves such as in the Dow Industrials, Russell 2000 and emerging markets, it‘s unlikely that the S&P 500 met more than a temporary setback. Just look at the rush into risk-on assets as an immediate reaction to the infrastructure and taxation plans – see the high yield corporate bonds moving higher (and this time also investment grade corporate bonds finally) as long-dated Treasuries keep losing ground, and the dollar noticeably wavered. Yes, emerging worries about how this will be all paid for – not that an ideological challenge to modern monetary theory would be gaining any traction, but rather what would be the (quite predictable) effect of steep tax increases? Reduction in economic activity, unproductive moves to outset the effects, decrease in potential GDP? Remember the time proven truth that whatever the percentage rate, the government always takes in
Biden just announced an ambitious and expensive infrastructure plan. Will it rebuild gold? Yesterday (Mar. 31), President Joe Biden announced the big infrastructure plan , the second major legislative initiative after the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan passed in early March. The proposal includes about $2.2 trillion in new spending over eight years, boosting government expenditures even further . Despite the name, the plan assumes that only a part would be spent on infrastructure. To be more specific, Biden wants to spend $600 billion on transportation infrastructure (such as bridges, roads, airports, etc.), and more than $300 billion on improving utilities infrastructure (drinking-water pipes, electric grids, broadband). He also proposes to put more than $300 billion into building and upgrading housing and schools, $400 billion to care for elderly and disabled Americans, and almost $600 billion in research and development infrastructure, manufacturing, and job trainin