1 The Brics and their bank (Barry Eichengreen in The
Guardian) For the leaders of the Brics countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China,
and South Africa), the announcement in July of their agreement to establish a
"New Development Bank" (NDB) and a "Contingent Reserve
Arrangement" (CRA) was a public-relations coup. The agreement was also an
opportunity for the five countries to reiterate their dissatisfaction with the
World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the role of the dollar in the
global monetary system.
The Brics possess just 11% of the votes in the IMF,
despite accounting for more than 20% of global economic activity. The US
Congress refuses to ratify the agreement reached in 2010 to correct this skewed
state of affairs. Meanwhile, the share of the dollar in global foreign-exchange
reserves remains more than 60%, while 85% of global foreign-exchange
transactions involve dollars.
Given the reluctance of underrepresented countries
to sign up for the IMF's precautionary credit lines, central banks desperate
for dollars can obtain them only from the Federal Reserve. Thus, the Brics'
dissatisfaction with the status quo is understandable. The question is whether
their NDB and CRA will make a difference. There already is a proliferation of
regional development banks, from the Inter-American Development Bank and the
Asian Development Bank to the more modestly capitalized African Development
Bank. These institutions co-operate with the World Bank. Their existence
creates no major problems for the Bretton Woods institutions.
But the interests of prospective borrowers and
lenders of NDB are not obviously compatible. The next Brics country
experiencing a crisis will want to draw on the CRA. But the other members will
hesitate to lend more than token amounts, especially if there are repayment
doubts. Other attempts to establish networks of swap lines and credits, such as
the Chiang Mai Initiative, which was negotiated in the wake of the Asian
crisis, have been bedevilled by the same problem.
There is the fact that the Brics' commitments to the
CRA are expressed in US dollars. The NDB makes sense for the Brics, and it has
a future. But the CRA is empty symbolism, and that is how it will be
remembered.
2 Fear of a UK housing bubble (Khaleej Times) London
house prices have leaped 25 per cent in a year, the steepest price rise since
1987. The increase across Britain is the highest it has been in nine years. Official
data from the UK shows a government unable to contain a rising property bubble:
stricter lending measures, introduced in April, have only led to an
acceleration in price rises. The cost of buying a London home for single
first-home buyers is now nine times their average salary — the worst it’s ever
been in the UK.
The IMF and Bank of England have both warned of the
potential economic consequences of overpriced housing. The only part of the UK
to be spared the growing housing bubble has been Scotland. Its housing market
was flat during the first two quarters of the year.
Left-leaning Scotland’s rejection of Tory politics
has become a key linchpin in the debate. Scotland seeks to reinvent itself as a
Scandinavian-style welfare state, bringing more equal healthcare and education.
That the UK is among the most — and increasingly — unequal countries in the
OECD only stokes the fire.
The UK capital’s house prices are 30 per cent higher
than their last peak in 2007, growing at more than 7 per cent a quarter. An
online estate agent told the UK’s Guardian newspaper that it was a
“supercharged bubble”: “If anything shouts ‘unsustainable’, it’s annual price
inflation of 25 per cent.”
3 India shamed by rape, says PM (BBC) Narendra Modi
said India had been shamed by a recent spate of rapes, as he made his first
Independence Day speech as prime minister. He called on parents to take
responsibility for their sons' actions, saying parents must teach their sons
the difference between right and wrong. Mr Modi also pledged bank accounts for
all and toilets in every school.
Mr Modi, who led his party to victory in this
summer's general election, addressed the nation from the 17th Century Red Fort
in Delhi. He did not read from a prepared text and for the first time in many
years the prime minister did not stand behind a bullet-proof screen. In a
departure from tradition, Mr Modi spoke extempore, without consulting any
notes, and in his hour-long speech, did not falter even once.
He talked about societal and family responsibility
in ending rapes, advising parents to bring up better sons and not just question
daughters. He lamented the skewed sex ratio and appealed to doctors to end
abortion of female foetuses and advised mothers not to hanker after sons. And
he spoke proudly of the "29 medals women athletes have won" at the
2014 Commonwealth Games.
Over many years, prime ministers have used their
annual Independence Day speeches to warn Pakistan and for grandstanding, but Mr
Modi used the historic occasion to say how he was bothered by the all-pervasive
filth around him and why India must end open-air defecation and build more
toilets. But critics have used the occasion to question his performance in the
months since taking over as prime minister and his government's failure to
deliver reforms to overhaul the economy going through the worst slowdown in two
decades.
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