Category: Finance

Mobile money services are becoming increasingly popular around the world, ranging from East Africa’s M-PESA to popular smartphone apps like Venmo in the United States. This infographic takes a deeper look at the percentage of young adults aged 15 to 34 in European countries that reported making payments via mobile phone in 2014.

Interactive infographic coming soon; in the meantime, please view at this link.

Since the euro’s introduction in 1999, over 75 percent of foreign debts have been denominated in euros and US dollars, echoing the dual-currency system of the first half of the twentieth century, when the dollar and the British pound sterling were the key currencies in international finance.

With the euro seen as a stabilizing factor for regional economies, many nations have pegged their national currencies to the euro, maintaining a fixed exchange rate. Bulgaria, Denmark, Croatia, and more than a dozen mostly-francophone West and Central African countries have pegged their currencies to the euro. Such was the case for Switzerland until January 2015, when the Swiss National Bank suddenly scrapped the Swiss franc’s peg to the euro in an effort to preempt the European Central Bank’s planned €60 billion-per-month quantitative easing program.

Continue reading “Implications of unsustainable euro inflation for US exports” →

In two bold firsts, Switzerland is issuing ten-year bonds with a negative 0.05 yield, while Mexico has introduced a new 100-year bond denominated in euros with a 4.2 percent yield. With a yield far higher than any comparable eurozone-issued bonds, Mexico’s bond, initially launched at EUR1.5 billion, could see purchasers collectively earn EUR63 million on their investments in 2115.