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Business Daily: Business Daily Global Imbalances

20/02/2013

Business Daily Global Imbalances

BBC World Service - Business Daily, Business Daily Global Imbalances

Are imbalances the biggest threat to the world economy? Plus: Italy's family run firms.

Are imbalances now the biggest threat to the world economy? Plus a look at Italy's family run firms.

If, as they say, the world economy is walking a tightrope, then presumably it needs a decent sense of balance. But is there any sign of that - are imbalances, in fact, now the biggest threat we face? Michael Pettis is a professor of finance at Peking University's Guanghua School of Management, and he's just written a book on the topic - The Great Rebalancing: Trade, Conflict and the Perilous Road Ahead for the World Economy. As the title implies, he's not optimistic about efforts so far - look no further, he says, than at the relative levels of household savings across the major economies. 

Plus, as Italy goes to the polls, we look at what some see as one of its biggest challenges - a flagging economy, run by old-fashioned family firms. We hear from one Italy's oldest shipping firms, Fratelli Cosulich. Founded in 1851, it still remains exclusively in the hands of the family that bears its name. Augusto Cosulich is the current managing director.

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