House prices threaten political backlash in Europe

The growing challenge in accessing affordable and secure housing could spiral into a political crisis if left unresolved

Subject Central banks’ divergent monetary policy stances in Central Europe. Significance The Czech National Bank (CNB) has raised interest rates twice in three months and plans further hikes in the coming months, as surging wages and house prices fuel inflationary pressures. The Hungarian National Bank (MNB) continues to ease policy as inflation remains below its 3% target. The National Bank of Romania (NBR) is preparing to raise rates as the economy overheats, but the National Bank of Poland (NBP) is in no hurry to tighten policy, owing to persistently low core inflation. Impacts Emerging markets are now suffering outflows, with investors withdrawing money from local currency debt and equity funds. Dearer Brent crude will fuel inflationary pressures and contribute to the more positive economic outlook for developing economies. Germany’s political crisis is having only a muted impact on investor sentiment towards Germany and the euro-area. This will help underpin favourable market conditions in both the single currency area and Central Europe.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (43) ◽  
Author(s):  
Damien Puy ◽  
Anil Ari ◽  
Yu Shi

We test whether foreign demand matters for local house prices in the US using an identification strategy based on the existence of “home bias abroad” in international real estate markets. Following an extreme political crisis event abroad, a proxy for a strong and exogenous shift in foreign demand, we show that house prices rise disproportionately more in neighbourhoods with a high concentration of population originating from the crisis country. This effect is strong, persistent, and robust to the exclusion of major cities. We also show that areas that were already expensive in the late 1990s have experienced the strongest foreign demand shocks and the biggest drop in affordability between 2000 and 2017. Our findings suggest a non-trivial causal effect of foreign demand shocks on local house prices over the last 20 years, especially in neighbourhoods that were already rather unaffordable for the median household.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 234-241
Author(s):  
Mohammed Al-Shakka ◽  
Ebtesam Abood ◽  
Adel Al-Dhubhany ◽  
Sami Abdo Radman Aldubai ◽  
Khaled Said ◽  
...  

Because of the almost-instant connection with the welfare and well-being of individuals, pharmaceutical industry stands prominently as a very important factor for the improvement and progress of a healthy productive nation. These days, pharmaceutical industry thrives as one of the largest and exponentially expanding global industries. Nonetheless, millions of people in low income developing countries, have to suffer from the fatal consequences of the inaccessibility and non-availability of essential drugs. This is also happening in Yemen, where the pharmaceutical manufacturers sector have to face up to many challenges. The Yemen Drug Company (YEDCO) was founded in 1964 by the Yemeni government as it collaborated with private investors. It was endorsed as a company with the expertise in the medicinal drug marketing. YEDCO started its work by taking in drugs from foreign companies and then locally marketing and distributing them. In 1982, YEDCO built the first medicinal factory for drugs in Sana’a. Since then, seven companies were set up to manufacture medicines in Yemen. The expanding population has led to the need to have more pharmaceutical products. It may be understandable that pharmaceutical manufacturer companies are also hit by the political crisis in the country. Inadequate amount of fuel and raw material as well as low security status were some of the underlying factors behind these ill-effects in Yemen. Imported drugs make up about nearly 90% % of the pharmaceutical market compared to 10% drugs from the domestic market. This situation has led to an additional burden being shouldered by the national economy, where Yemen spends about US$263 million annually on pharmaceutical drugs, in reference to the national Supreme Drugs Authority. Although there is a very quick growth in the population and drugs consumption, the pharmaceutical industry has not been very active, where global pharmaceutical products play their role dominantly on the domestic market. The pharmaceutical production necessitates skilled human resources like university graduates. By contrast, the government and the private sector should also motivate the pharmaceutical industry and make use of the local employment


2014 ◽  
pp. 30-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Grigoryev ◽  
E. Buryak ◽  
A. Golyashev

The Ukrainian socio-economic crisis has been developing for years and resulted in the open socio-political turmoil and armed conflict. The Ukrainian population didn’t meet objectives of the post-Soviet transformation, and people were disillusioned for years, losing trust in the state and the Future. The role of workers’ remittances in the Ukrainian economy is underestimated, since the personal consumption and stability depend strongly on them. Social inequality, oligarchic control of key national assets contributed to instability as well as regional disparity, aggravated by identity differences. Economic growth is slow due to a long-term underinvestment, and prospects of improvement are dependent on some difficult institutional reforms, macro stability, open external markets and the elites’ consensus. Recovering after socio-economic and political crisis will need not merely time, but also governance quality improvement, institutions reform, the investment climate revival - that can be attributed as the second transformation in Ukraine.


2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-259
Author(s):  
Joseph Acquisto

This essay examines a polemic between two Baudelaire critics of the 1930s, Jean Cassou and Benjamin Fondane, which centered on the relationship of poetry to progressive politics and metaphysics. I argue that a return to Baudelaire's poetry can yield insight into what seems like an impasse in Cassou and Fondane. Baudelaire provides the possibility of realigning metaphysics and politics so that poetry has the potential to become the space in which we can begin to think the two of them together, as opposed to seeing them in unresolvable tension. Or rather, the tension that Baudelaire animates between the two allows us a new way of thinking about the role of esthetics in moments of political crisis. We can in some ways see Baudelaire as responding, avant la lettre, to two of his early twentieth-century readers who correctly perceived his work as the space that breathes a new urgency into the questions of how modern poetry relates to the world from which it springs and in which it intervenes.


Asian Survey ◽  
1975 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. 996-1013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard L. Park
Keyword(s):  

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-254
Author(s):  
Andreu Espasa

De forma un tanto paradójica, a finales de los años treinta, las relaciones entre México y Estados Unidos sufrieron uno de los momentos de máxima tensión, para pasar, a continuación, a experimentar una notable mejoría, alcanzando el cénit en la alianza política y militar sellada durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. El episodio catalizador de la tensión y posterior reconciliación fue, sin duda, el conflicto diplomático planteado tras la nacionalización petrolera de 1938. De entre los factores que propiciaron la solución pacífica y negociada al conflicto petrolero, el presente artículo se centra en analizar dos fenómenos del momento. En primer lugar, siguiendo un orden de relevancia, se examina el papel que tuvo la Guerra Civil Española. Aunque las posturas de ambos gobiernos ante el conflicto español fueron sustancialmente distintas, las interpretaciones y las lecciones sobre sus posibles consecuencias permitieron un mayor entendimiento entre los dos países vecinos. En segundo lugar, también se analizarán las afinidades ideológicas entre el New Deal y el cardenismo en el contexto de la crisis mundial económica y política de los años treinta, con el fin de entender su papel lubricante en las relaciones bilaterales de la época. Somewhat paradoxically, at the end of the 1930s, the relationship between Mexico and the United States experienced one of its tensest moments, after which it dramatically improved, reaching its zenith in the political and military alliance cemented during World War II. The catalyst for this tension and subsequent reconciliation was, without doubt, the diplomatic conflict that arose after the oil nationalization of 1938. Of the various factors that led to a peaceful negotiated solution to the oil conflict, this article focuses on analyzing two phenomena. Firstly—in order of importance—this article examines the role that the Spanish Civil War played. Although the positions of both governments in relation to the Spanish war were significantly different, the interpretations and lessons concerning potential consequences enabled a greater understanding between the two neighboring countries. Secondly, this article also analyzes the ideological affinities between the New Deal and Cardenismo in the context of the global economic and political crisis of the thirties, seeking to understand their role in facilitating bilateral relations during that period.


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