Juggling Dynamite

Danielle was a guest today on the Financial Survival Network with Kerry Lutz, talking about recent developments in the world economy and markets. You can listen to a clip of the discussion here.

This is an encouraging trend. Greece on Monday became the seventh European Union country to formally back the imposition of a tax on financial transactions. See: Greece Backs Financial-Transaction Tax

“The controversial tax, known as FTT, needs the backing of at least nine EU countries to go ahead under a process called “enhanced cooperation,” which allows EU countries to coordinate on policies that don’t have the support of all 27 member states.

The initiative to move to a harmonized tax on financial transactions has been led by Germany and France. Portugal, Slovenia, Belgium and Austria have also formally backed the proposal over the last few days.

Germany and France hope to get to the requisite nine-country backing here in Luxembourg, where EU finance ministers will be meeting Tuesday. The Greek decision came at the meeting among the 17 euro-zone finance ministers taking place ahead of the wider EU ministers’ meeting.”

The world economy will grow 3.3 percent this year, the slowest since the 2009 recession, and 3.6 percent next year, the IMF said today, compared with July predictions of 3.5 percent in 2012 and 3.9 percent in 2013. The Washington-based lender now sees “alarmingly high” risks of a steeper slowdown, with a one-in-six chance of growth slipping below 2 percent. Here is a direct link.