In recent years, the so-called “Amazon effect” has been used to explain low inflation in developed economies: Prices are supposedly lower – and more transparent – online, forcing offline retailers to reduce prices. The effect, however, can go both ways – the influence of e-commerce makes prices fluctuate more often, reacting immediately to shocks like energy price and exchange rate ...

For its roads, power stations and other useful assets to live, a bankrupt Indian infrastructure lender must die. Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd. (IL&FS) was seized by the government this month after unexpected defaults on its $12.5 billion of debt spread panic through money and equity markets. A new six-member board chaired by banker Uday Kotak will have to sort ...

The finance ministers and central bankers from almost 190 countries who gathered in Bali for the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank (IMF) drove, I suspect, the final nail into the coffin of the notion of a synchronized pickup in global growth. In a tone that contrasted with the optimism of their spring meetings in April, ...