The privatisation of infrastructure: One size does not fit all

The details of Europe’s new financial transactions tax won’t be made public for a few weeks, but the FT’s Alex Barker has seen a draft, and it looks impressively robust. The tax is being implemented by 11 countries, including most importantly Germany and France, and it’s going to be levied at two levels: 0.1% on securities trades, and 0.01% on derivatives trades.

Michael Davies, Fabio Panetta, 26 July 2011Sovereign credit risk has emerged as the main challenge to global financial stability. This column explains how a deterioration in sovereign creditworthiness can damage bank funding conditions before discussing possible options for mitigating these effects. It argues that banks can only do so much and that the policymakers have a critical role. Full Article: How does sovereign risk affect bank funding conditions? What can policymakers do?

Richard Olsen, 6 March 2010Why should high frequency finance be of any interest to policymakers interested in long-term economic issues? This column argues that the discipline can revolutionise economics and finance by turning accepted assumptions on their head and offering novel solutions to today’s issues. Full Article: Why policymakers need to take note of high frequency finance

Ricardo Cabral, 15 May 2011Greece, Ireland, and more recently Portugal have applied for EU and IMF financial aid. This column argues the accompanying adjustment programmes should be modified to reflect the balance of payments and external debt crises these countries face.

Jon Danielsson, Con Keating, 18 March 2011In crises, insurance companies' asset values may fall significantly without a corresponding drop in their liabilities. European insurers have argued that their liabilities should be discounted by a higher rate during crises, lest regulations force them to raise more capital at exactly the wrong time.

Over the last few weeks, President Obama has traveled the country campaigning on the taxpayers' dime trying to sell parts of his Big Jobs Plan.  In order to sell a chunk of that plan - a massive new government spending spree on domestic infrastructure - Obama last week repeatedly cited China's infrastructure spending as the prime example of how the United States is desperately falling behind and needs to catch up: