Citing 2019’s world economic performance as “the feeblest since the global financial crisis,” this month the World Bank reduced its economic forecasts through 2022. The bank sees U.S. growth dropping below 2 percent due to unpredictable trade policies restraining investment and the costs that U.S. tariffs add to goods. Europe’s economy will grow by only 1 percent in 2020, and...

Despite the European Central Bank (ECB) dumping cheap money into the region’s economy last September when it sent interest rates deeper into negative territory – to -0.5 percent from -0.4 – and revived its €2.6 trillion bond-buying program, it’s not working. Germany, Europe’s largest and strongest economy, is expected to grow just 0.5 percent for the year, compared to 1.5...

As China’s economic growth rate tumbled to a 30-year low in 2019, corporate loan defaults surged to $18.6 billion, compared to $12.2 billion the year before. The largest group of sour loans is among corporations that borrowed heavily to grow rapidly during China’s recent expansion. Many government-owned companies are faring no better. Last November, Tewoo, a commodities trading firm backed...

Despite record low interest rates of 1.25 percent and a previous government’s fiscal stimulus, South Korea’s economy hasn’t moved out of the slow lane. The exporter nation is expected to post a 2 percent growth rate for 2019, its worst record in a decade. South Korea’s economy has taken hits from China’s weakness and a drop in the global computer-chip...

While the developed equity markets registered strong gains, emerging market indexes remained weak. The MSCI EM Index, which tracks these lesser-known markets, has gained just 47 percent since 2009, compared to the MSCI World Index, which gained more than triple that amount during the same period. The World Bank cites a litany of issues stifling growth: poor business climates, the...