10 must-read economics stories of the week

A curated list of some of this week’s most interesting stories on economic growth and social inclusion, featuring our series, Beyond GDP.

1. Facts and figures. In the U.S., the rich live longer no matter where they live. For the poor, geography matters. (The New York Times)

2. Unstable banking sectors in Europe have been a concern for a while. Facing large non-performing loans in its banking sector, Italy has now announced plans to form a €5bn fund to come to the aid of weaker lenders by asking the country’s biggest banks to step in. (Financial Times)

3. What is GDP, and how are we misusing it? (World Economic Forum)

4. What’s the world’s economic outlook? Growth has been too slow for too long, the IMF says in its April update released this week. (IMF)

5. The IMF suggests that nominal negative interest rates introduced by the ECB and several countries help deliver additional monetary stimulus (e.g. through increased wholesale lending), although monetary policy has clear limits. (IMF Direct)

6. Here are 5 lessons from Japan's experience with negative interest rates. (Bloomberg View)

7. The Inter-American Development Bank’s Macroeconomic Report 2016 suggests that fiscal and trade policies in particular are needed to jump-start Latin American growth. (IDB)

8. In Latin America, poverty declined, the middle class stagnated, and the group of vulnerable increased. (World Economic Forum)

9. Noah Smith discusses the most recent criticism of the economics profession as relying too heavily on mathematical models. (noahpinionblog)

10. The world’s poorest countries are suffering financially from the commodity price drop and a strong dollar, a study warns. (The Guardian)