What We Read Today 31 July 2014

Econintersect: Every day our editors collect the most interesting things they find from around the internet and present a summary “reading list” which will include very brief summaries (and sometimes longer ones) of why each item has gotten our attention. Suggestions from readers for “reading list” items are gratefully reviewed, although sometimes space limits the number included.

• Argentina Declared in Default by S&P as Talks Fail (Camila Russo and Katia Porzecanski, Bloomberg) It’s official! Argentina has failed to pay interest on $13 billion of restructured bonds (out of the $200 billion total foreign currency debt. See also Today’s the Day for Argentina and Its Vultures (Matt Levine, Bloomberg View) says today really isn’t any different than any other day because their is no legal definition of sovereign bankruptcy. There is another article and further discussion of this ‘behind the wall’.

• The Brics bank is a glimpse of the future (David Pilling, The Financial Times) The new international bank may present a competitor to the World Bank anf the IMF (International Monetary Fund) as the five participating BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) can operate independently for financing infrastructure and in dealing with global financial stresses. The possibility is arising that the post World War II world order defined at Bretton Woods in 1944 is being upended. Pilling mentions the hypocrisy of the IMF in forcing reforms on developing countries in financial distress while endorsing bail-outs when the big boys got in trouble in 2008. He says the BRICS Bank was “born out of frustration“. The article is worth a lot, but the caption graphic is priceless (below). See also GEI Opinion 28 July article The BRICS Bank is a Game-changer (by Ali Burak Güven, The Conversation).

• Flipkart’s Bansals nearly as rich as Infosys co-founders (Samidha Sharma and Anshul Dhamija, The Times of India) Hat tip to Sanjeev Kulkarni. The two co-founders of India’s online marketing start-up Flipkart now have a combined net-worth approaching $1 billion. Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal (not related) originally worked for Amazon before starting their own business in 2007. By 2011 their annual sales revenue had grown to $11 million to a current sales rate that annualizes to $2 billion. The founders project a potential annual revenue 50x larger in less than ten years, at $100 billion. But the road to the goal is not going to be traveled without competition. In response to a $1 billion fund-raise announced by Flipkart on Tuesday, Amazon has announced it will see the India company $1 billion and raise $1 billion. Amazon announced Wednesday (30 July) plans to invest $2 billion in India in an effort to boost the current annualized sales rate of $500 million and challenge the Flipkart revenue. See Amazon to invest $2 billion in India (The Times of India). Hat tip to Sanjeev Kulkarni. Amazon announced it will add five more warehouses in India to add to the two existing fulfillment centers in Mumbai and Bangalore.

• Odds of a fatal car accident largely depend on where you live (Douglas Newcomb, MSN Autos) The most dangerous state for driving is West Virginia with 17.63 fatalities per billion vehicle miles driven. This was more than four times the 4.2 deaths in Washington, DC. The national average was 11.3 fatalities per billion vehicle miles driven. See also U-M Study Shows Fewer People Dying on U.S. Roads (Michael Strong, The Detroit Bureau) Between 2005 and 2012 highway fatalities in the U.S. fell by nearly 23%.

There are 10 articles discussed today ‘behind the wall’.

Please support all that we do at Global Economic Intersection with a subscription to our premium content ‘behind the wall’.

There are between 75 and 100 articles reviewed most weeks. That is in addition to the 140-160 articles of free content we provide.

You get a full year for only $25.