Hidden Amongst the Furore: Synchronised Warnings From the BIS and the IMF

It has become a disconcerting trend that as geopolitical events intensify and keep a majority of people engaged in the latest outbreak of political theatre, the words of central bankers fall on increasingly deaf ears.

At a seminar of the European Stability Mechanism this month, Bank for International Settlements General Manager Agustin Carstens delivered a speech called, ‘Shelter from the Storm‘.

U.S. Hints at China Truce as World Warns of Trade-War Threat

Mnuchin speaks during a briefing at the IMF spring meetings April 21. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

 

• Treasury’s Mnuchin considers China trip amid trade dispute
• China’s Commerce Ministry confirms U.S. has requested visit

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he’s considering a trip to China amid a trade dispute with Beijing that finance chiefs warn could derail the global economic upswing.

Mnuchin said he’s “cautiously optimistic” of reaching an agreement with China that bridges their differences over trade.

Hartz IV for Everyone

BERLIN/BRUSSELS/WASHINGTON (Own report) – New records in German foreign trade are provoking massive international criticism of Berlin’s concentration on exports. According to reports, the German economy has achieved a foreign trade surplus of 20.4 billion Euros in September – a new record. It is estimated that for 2013, German companies’ exports will exceed by around 200 billion Euros the amount imported. That is the world’s highest national import-export gap. Protests are growing because many of the customer countries for German products thereby are driven into debt, as was the case in the crisis countries of the southern Euro zone. Other than the EU Commission threatening Berlin with an official reprimand, the US Secretary of Finances is accusing the German government of threatening the stability of the global economy. The IMF is also emphatically insisting that Germany rein in its export offensive. It is based on the low-wage policy, initiated by the SPD-Green government coalition – and continued by the CDU-SPD grand coalition – which provides a decisive competitive advantage to German industry. During those administrations, Germany was the sole EU nation with decreasing real wages.