Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Thursday, October 23, 2014

The world economy is not in good shape—and the biggest threat comes from the euro zone. As Angela Merkel and her peers have dithered, the currency union is on the verge of slipping into its third recession in six years and its inflation rate has slipped to 0.3%. Our cover leader warns that deflation is all too close and extremely dangerous John Micklethwait, Editor-in-Chief

The winners and losers from cheap oil Good for Western consumers, bad for Iran, Venezuela and Russia READ MORE » How to shirk at work Getting ahead in the office with the minimum of effort READ MORE » Ebola and big data Monitoring mobile-phone usage could help fight the disease READ MORE » Politics this week Two separate killings of soldiers in Canada by suspects who had converted to Islam shocked the nation. One gunman fatally shot a soldier at the war memorial in Ottawa, the capital, before entering the nearby Parliament, where he was killed in an exchange of fire with the sergeant-at-arms. Two days earlier another soldier had been run down by a car in Quebec and died of his injuries. His assailant was also killed in a shoot-out. Canada recently authorised its air force to assist with the bombing of Islamic State forces in Iraq SEE ARTICLE » MORE FROM: POLITICS THIS WEEK » Business this week China’s economy grew by 7.3% in the third quarter, the worst showing since the depths of the global financial crisis in early 2009. Hampered by rising debt, overcapacity in its industries and a stumbling property market (house sales were down 11% in the first nine months of the year) China’s slowing economy is likely to miss its GDP growth target of 7.5% this year SEE ARTICLE » MORE FROM: BUSINESS THIS WEEK »