This year has turned out to be a surprisingly good one for the world economy. Global output has probably risen by close to 5%, well above its trend rate and a lot faster than forecasters were expecting 12 months ago. Most of the dangers that frightened financial markets during the year have failed to materialize. China"s economy has not suffered a hard landing. America"s mid-year slowdown did not become a double-dip recession. Granted, the troubles of the euro area"s peripheral economies have proved all too real. Yet the euro zone as a whole has grown at a decent rate for an ageing continent, thanks to oomph from Germany, the fastest-growing big rich economy in 2010.The question now is whether 2011 will follow the same pattern. Many people seem to think so. Consumer and business confidence is rising in most parts of the world; global manufacturing is accelerating; and financial markets are buoyant. The MSCI index of global share prices has climbed by 20% since early July. Investors today are shrugging off news far more ominous than that which rattled them earlier this year, from the soaring debt yields in the euro zone"s periphery to news of rising inflation in China.Earlier this year investors were too pessimistic. Now their breezy confidence seems misplaced. To oversimplify a little, the performance of the world economy in 2011 depends on what happens in three places: the big emerging markets, the euro area and America. These big three are heading in very different directions, with very different growth prospects and contradictory policy choices. Some of this divergence is inevitable: even to the casual observer, India"s economy has always been rather different from America"s. But new splits are opening up, especially in the rich world, and with them come ever more chances for friction.Begin with the big emerging markets, by far the biggest contributors to global growth this year. Where it can, foreign capital is pouring in. Isolated worries about asset bubbles have been replaced by a fear of broader overheating. With Brazilian shops packed with shoppers, inflation there has surged above 5% and imports in November were 44% higher than the previous year.Cheap money is often the problem. Though the slump of 2009 is a distant memory, monetary conditions are still extraordinarily loose, thanks, in many places, to efforts to hold down currencies. This combination is unsustainable. To stop prices accelerating, most emerging economies will need tighter policies next year. If they do too much, their growth could slow sharply. If they do too little, they invite higher inflation and a bigger tightening later. Either way, the chances of a macroeconomic shock coming from the emerging world are rising steeply. By saying "now their breezy confidence seems misplaced", the author means that ______.
A. investors are too active
B. investors are too optimistic
C. investors are too relaxed
D. investors are too pessimistic
In the rarefied world of the corporate board, a good network matters. 1 often involves word-of-mouth recommendations: getting on a 2 is easier if you have the right connections. New research suggests men use 3 better than women.Marie Lalanne and Paul Seabright of the Toulouse School of Economics 4 the effect of a network on 5 using a database of board members in Europe and America. They find that if you were to compare two executive directors, 6 in every way except that one had 200 ex-colleagues now 7 boards and the other 400, the latter, 8 , would be paid 6% more. For non-executives the gap is 14%.The really 9 finding concerns the difference between the sexes. Among executive-board members, women earn 17% less than their male 10 . There are plenty of plausible explanations for this 11 , from interruptions to women"s careers to old-fashioned 12 . But the authors find that this pay gap can be fully 13 by the effect of executives" networks. Men can leverage a large network into more senior positions or a seat on a more 14 board; women don"t seem to be able to.Women could just have 15 connections with members of their networks. "Women seem more inclined to build and rely on only a few strong relationships," says Mr. Seabright. Men are better at developing 16 acquaintances into a network, and better at maintaining a high personal 17 through these contacts. Women may, of course, also be hurt by the existing 18 of men on boards and a male 19 for filling executive positions with other men. But a tendency to think of other men first will be 20 if talented women don"t stay on the radar.
A. document
B. measure
C. supervise
D. prospect
In the rarefied world of the corporate board, a good network matters. 1 often involves word-of-mouth recommendations: getting on a 2 is easier if you have the right connections. New research suggests men use 3 better than women.Marie Lalanne and Paul Seabright of the Toulouse School of Economics 4 the effect of a network on 5 using a database of board members in Europe and America. They find that if you were to compare two executive directors, 6 in every way except that one had 200 ex-colleagues now 7 boards and the other 400, the latter, 8 , would be paid 6% more. For non-executives the gap is 14%.The really 9 finding concerns the difference between the sexes. Among executive-board members, women earn 17% less than their male 10 . There are plenty of plausible explanations for this 11 , from interruptions to women"s careers to old-fashioned 12 . But the authors find that this pay gap can be fully 13 by the effect of executives" networks. Men can leverage a large network into more senior positions or a seat on a more 14 board; women don"t seem to be able to.Women could just have 15 connections with members of their networks. "Women seem more inclined to build and rely on only a few strong relationships," says Mr. Seabright. Men are better at developing 16 acquaintances into a network, and better at maintaining a high personal 17 through these contacts. Women may, of course, also be hurt by the existing 18 of men on boards and a male 19 for filling executive positions with other men. But a tendency to think of other men first will be 20 if talented women don"t stay on the radar.
A. discourtesy
B. disturbance
C. dispute
D. discrimination
In the rarefied world of the corporate board, a good network matters. 1 often involves word-of-mouth recommendations: getting on a 2 is easier if you have the right connections. New research suggests men use 3 better than women.Marie Lalanne and Paul Seabright of the Toulouse School of Economics 4 the effect of a network on 5 using a database of board members in Europe and America. They find that if you were to compare two executive directors, 6 in every way except that one had 200 ex-colleagues now 7 boards and the other 400, the latter, 8 , would be paid 6% more. For non-executives the gap is 14%.The really 9 finding concerns the difference between the sexes. Among executive-board members, women earn 17% less than their male 10 . There are plenty of plausible explanations for this 11 , from interruptions to women"s careers to old-fashioned 12 . But the authors find that this pay gap can be fully 13 by the effect of executives" networks. Men can leverage a large network into more senior positions or a seat on a more 14 board; women don"t seem to be able to.Women could just have 15 connections with members of their networks. "Women seem more inclined to build and rely on only a few strong relationships," says Mr. Seabright. Men are better at developing 16 acquaintances into a network, and better at maintaining a high personal 17 through these contacts. Women may, of course, also be hurt by the existing 18 of men on boards and a male 19 for filling executive positions with other men. But a tendency to think of other men first will be 20 if talented women don"t stay on the radar.
A. shortlist
B. checklist
C. pamphlet
D. leaflet