Insights, analysis and must reads from CNN's Fareed Zakaria and the Global Public Square team, compiled by Global Briefing editor Chris Good
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July 27, 2022
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Is the Economy Really So Bad? |
Tomorrow, a new government GDP estimate will tell us whether the US is technically in a recession. But how bad things are, and for whom, is the subject of some debate.
On Sunday’s GPS, former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers suggested America is heading toward a recession—and that a hoped-for “soft landing,” in which interest-rate hikes would result in minimal economic backsliding, will be elusive. Today, the Federal Reserve raised rates by another .75 percentage points.
Still, The Economist argues there are reasons to reject doom and gloom. In the US and other rich countries, the magazine writes, growth has slowed this summer—but not at a dire pace. Many have likely saved enough to cushion them through a downturn, while strong employment numbers remain a good thing.
In the UK, current inflation and a predicted recession risk turning British politics toward a narrative of decline, William Davies warns in the London Review of Books. “It’s people in rented homes, living wholly off wages and benefits, who are the principal victims of (the current inflation) crisis, which has no clear end in sight,” Davies writes.
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A Different Picture in the Developing World |
In other places, different troubles have arisen. With more precarious public finances, the developing world faces a surge of default fears alongside concerns about supply shocks, inflation, and exchange rates. At the Pakistani English-language daily Dawn, Mohiuddin Aazim asks if the rupee can recover, offering a concise lesson in the economics of exports, imports, foreign-exchange reserves and currency values.
Tightening by the US Federal Reserve has caused economic havoc in Asia before, William Pesek writes in a Nikkei Asia op-ed, and it might do so again. |
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As Pope Francis visits Canada on a “penitential pilgrimage” to apologize for abuses at Catholic-run residential schools for Indigenous children, Paul Elie writes for The New Yorker that Francis has changed the church’s direction notably when it comes to admitting fault and apologizing directly.
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After the collapse of Italy’s governing coalition and the resignation of Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Andrea Lorenzo Capussela opines in the Financial Times that Italy will likely continue with Draghi’s economic-reform program in order to keep receiving European Union funds but “probably” has “lost” an opportunity to address shortcomings in its political system.
Analysts expect Italy to favor the nationalist right in elections to be held Sept. 25, and David Broder writes in a New York Times opinion essay that a far-right Italian government, rising amid economic stagnation, could portend a similar future in Western Europe and the US. |
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‘Putin’s New Police State’ |
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