Bloomberg Of the 40 million people who climbed into Brazil’s middle class during the boom years of the previous decade, almost one in 10 has already slid back down. Marco Antonio dos Santos Correia fears he may be next. The 51-year-old trucker bought his vehicle and Rio de Janeiro apartment using borrowed cash, joining the millions of other Brazilians who ...

Sen. John Cornyn recalls visiting a Texas prison where some inmates taking shop classes could not read tape measures. Cornyn, who was previously a district court judge and Texas Supreme Court justice, knows that prisons are trying to teach literacy and vocations, trying to cope with the mental illnesses of many inmates and trying to take prophylactic measures to prevent ...

The EU-Turkey migrant draft deal touted last week as a breakthrough to settle the current refugee crisis faces difficulties, as some EU member states voiced resentment over Ankara’s demands, with Paris and Prague branding Turkey’s approach ‘Blackmail”. EU and Turkish leaders had agreed on a tentative plan that would see new migrants landing in Greece sent back to Turkey. For ...

What should the U.S. government do to fight recessions? What should it do to fight slow growth? This is the eternal question of so-called countercyclical policy. The two mainstream ideas are fiscal and monetary stimulus. The fiscal version works by having the government borrow and spend money, either on useful things like infrastructure, or by simply mailing people checks. The ...

On Monday, Malaysia’s defense minister Hishammuddin Hussein suggested if reports that China is placing military assets in the Spratlys are true, it would force the Southeast Asian state into a “pushback” against China. “If the reports we’ve received from various sources regarding the buildup and placement of military assets in the Spratlys are true – this forces us in a ...

Bloomberg Banks dragged European shares lower, while investors awaited the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting for signals on the health of the world’s biggest economy and the trajectory of interest rates. Credit Suisse Group AG led declines among banks, sliding 6.5 percent, with four Europe-based traders citing the absence of Chief Financial Officer David Mathers from a conference in London ...

Bloomberg Bank of America (BofA) Merrill Lynch says India’s central bank should set a schedule for bond purchases to help bring down lending rates amid a cash crunch in the financial system. The Reserve Bank of India has bought 570 billion rupees ($8.5 billion) of sovereign debt since resuming open-market operations, or OMOs, in early December after almost two years. ...

Beijing / Bloomberg The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) gauged demand for medium-term loans on Wednesday at an interest rate lower than it’s offered in the past, Reuters reported, citing people it didn’t identify. The monetary authority lowered the cost of the three- and six-month, and one-year Medium-term Lending Facility by 25 basis points to 2.5 percent, 2.6 percent and ...

BLOOMBERG Israel is experiencing one of the world’s longest streaks of negative inflation. Yet unlike central banks in Europe or Japan, which have lowered interest rates below zero to combat deflation, the Bank of Israel isn’t as worried about the trend. While these other banks fret about growth, Israeli central bankers say the local economy is healthy and the drop ...

VIENNA / Bloomberg Raiffeisen Bank International AG can afford to keep its Polish unit rather than sell it at a fire-sale price because the Austrian lender is already “within striking distance” of its target to boost capital ratios, according to its chief executive officer. Eastern Europe’s second-biggest lender still wants to dispose of the business but may not succeed in ...