THE COSTS OF AUSTERITY. With recent debate over austerity and its likely costs, last night’s fiscal debt and deficit data for Europe made for interesting reading. Encouragingly, the Eurozone general government budget deficit fell to 3.7% of GDP in 2012 from 4.2% in 2011, the lowest since 2008, comparing favourably with deficits for the US and UK (over 8% of GDP) …

Wall Street advanced, propelled by Microsoft and Caterpillar. Gains in Microsoft shares, last up 4.1 percent, bolstered momentum after reports that ValueAct Capital had taken a US$2 billion stake in the company. Shares of Caterpillar also rose, last up 3.3 percent. While the company reported earnings that fell short of expectations and downgraded its 2013 forecast, investors took heart from …

Inside US Trade is predicting the race for the WTO Director-General”s job is narrowing to an Indonesia-Brazil showdown.  As I noted in my column in the NZ Herald last week the key contest in the second “sudden death” round is between Groser, Brazil”s WTO ambassador Roberto Calvalho de Azevedo (reported as having an edge in diplomatic circles) and Indonesia”s former …