David McHugh writes: The European Central Bank is edging closer to unleashing more monetary stimulus on top of the 1.1 trillion euros ($1.2 trillion) it is already pumping into the eurozone’s less than impressive economic recovery.

While no immediate action is expected at Thursday’s meeting in Malta, investors will look for hints from ECB President Mario Draghi that the bank is willing or preparing to extend the stimulus effort rather than let it end next year.

A big concern is preventing the euro from rising from its current level around $1.13 per euro. A higher euro hurts exporters, who are key contributors to growth and jobs, and tends to weaken inflation by weighing on import prices.

A currency tends to weaken as a side effect of monetary stimulus, whose primary aim is to raise consumer price inflation. Currently, the eurozone’s inflation rate is alarmingly weak at an annual minus 0.1 percent. Europe’s economy grew 0.4 percent in the second quarter but unemployment remains high at 11 percent.

Draghi is getting no help on the exchange rate from his counterparts across the Atlantic at the U.S. Federal Reserve. The Fed has sent the dollar lower by postponing its first rate increase in seven years. Higher interest rates in the United States would draw more investment into dollar-denominated investments, increasing demand for the dollar and boosting its exchange rate against other currencies. So when the Fed backed off a rate increase at its September meeting, it put some upward pressure on the euro versus the dollar.

The ECB, the chief monetary authority for the 19 countries that use the shared euro currency, is currently making monthly purchases of government and corporate bonds using newly created money.

Draghi will probably  try to keep a lid on the euro by making clear that more stimulus could be coming.

“We expect no action and dovish rhetoric, mainly intended to stem the euro appreciating trend,” Valli wrote in a research note. “Dovish” means inclined to loosen monetary policy, whether through lower interest rates or more stimulus.

The ECB has already cut its benchmark interest rate to 0.05 percent and has said that is as close to zero as it can get, so attention is focused on its stimulus program. That consists of buying bonds with freshly created money, effectively pumping cash into the banking system in hopes it will encourage lending and borrowing, and thus boost the economy.

The Fed, Bank of England, and Bank of Japan have all carried out such purchases, with mixed results. The U.S. and British economies have shown stronger growth, and U.S. unemployment has fallen. But the global economy continues to show signs of weakness, such as a drop in prices for fuel and other commodities and low market interest rates.

Yahoo’s earnings are down. Bests prospects are the sale of their Alibaba stock.  Did Marissa Mayer take on an impossible job?  At least she is being paid lots of money.

Business Insider reports:  Three years into Marissa Mayer’s project to rebuild Yahoo, the wheels are starting to come off.

Never mind that the company’s revenue remains stagnant and that it has not yet managed to create anything close to a hit product that would spark some buzz among consumers and investors.

Or that Snapchat reportedly dumped Yahoo from its Discover service because it decided Yahoo was simply not relevant to its younger “millennial” audience. Or that Yahoo’s stock has fallen 25% since May.

The real problem facing Yahoo is that its own team looks as if it’s giving up.

That became all too clear with Monday’s news that Jackie Reses, one of Mayer’s key lieutenants who joined the team early on, is leaving to join the digital-payments company Square, which is approaching an initial public offering.

Reses and some of the other recent departures are not long-suffering Yahoo employees who have finally decided to move on after years of CEO changes, company re-orgs, and other hardships.

This is the core team handpicked by Mayer to lead the comeback effort. These are the people who bought in to the vision and, it would appear, who have now lost faith that Mayer will lead them to the promised land.

Kathy Savitt, the chief marketing officer and another marquee Mayer hire, left Yahoo last month. Lisa Licht, Yahoo’s senior vice president of marketing partnerships, and roughly a dozen other execs have also left in recent months.

Yahoo’s management page still shows a 15-person senior leadership team (not including Reses, who is still listed).

But a few big names on that list would really damage whatever credibility the company’s comeback effort still has if they were to leave.

These include Jeff Bonforte, a Yahoo “boomerang” hire who oversees the company’s communications products, and Adam Cahan, who spearheads Yahoo’s video and emerging products.

And then of course, there is CFO Ken Goldman, who Mayer tapped early on to bring some Silicon Valley experience and gravitas to the turnaround effort.

Of course, with Yahoo moving forward with the planned spin-off of its 15% stake in the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, it may simply be that it’s mission-accomplished time for much of the executive team.

The IRS has refused to give its advanced blessing to make the Alibaba spin-off a tax-free transaction, as Yahoo and its shareholders want. But Yahoo has indicated that it will push forward with the plan regardless.

Yahoo’s stake in Alibaba is the real reason Yahoo’s own stock has more than doubled since Mayer took the reins in July 2012.

Yahoo’s shareholders would prefer a tax-free spin-off. But even if the spin-off is not entirely tax-free, completing it will give Yahoo’s management team a convenient opportunity to trumpet an achievement and to wash their hands of the rest of Yahoo.

Sun Trust analyst Robert Peck speculated in a note to investors that Yahoo could become an acquisition target or a private-equity play after the Alibaba spin-off.

Yahoo’s turnaround would of course still be a work in progress. But then, maybe it was never about that to begin with.

A team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is due in Ghana for the second assessment of the country’s program with the fund,  The IMF program was homegrown and that the government was committed to keeping with fiscal discipline in order to meet the goals set under the three-year program in order to stabilize the micro-economy.

President Mahama said this when he interacted with the business community in the Ashanti Region in Kumasi last Sunday night as part of his two-day working visit to the region.

Enumerating the many programs the government was initiating to boost the private sector, the President said: “In the last two to three years, we have given very significant support to the private sector, especially in agribusiness.”

“Now private companies have been set up and they are buying our local rice for processing for both the local and export markets,” he added.

Although he expressed appreciation to the private sector for its tremendous contribution to Ghana’s economic growth, he challenged it to think outside the box to advance the growth.

The Ashanti Region, as the epicentre of business in Ghana, provides opportunity for businesses to venture into manufacturing.

President Mahama urged the private sector to stand solidly behind the government when it took tough decisions to improve the economy.

He indicated that taking such decisions did not mean he was wicked but that he wanted to restore micro-economic stability.

He also asked private businesses to pay their taxes promptly.

The President was not happy with the high interest rates charged by the banks, asking, “When you borrow at 25 per cent, what business can you do to make profit?”

Notwithstanding the challenges, he said, the Agenda for Transformation being pursued by the government was bound to turn things around by bringing down inflation, which would reflect in a reduction in interest rates.

President Mahama said efforts to resolve the power crisis were on course.

An unprecedented alliance of heads of state, city, and state leaders, has called for countries and companies around the world to put a price on carbon.

Joshua Hill writes:  The Carbon Pricing Panel, a group of leaders from around the world convened by World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim and IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, in conjunction with OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria. In all, the Carbon Pricing Panel is made up of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, French President François Hollande, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, Philippines President Benigno Aquino III, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, Governor Jerry Brown of California, and Mayor Eduardo Paes of Rio de Janeiro.

“There has never been a global movement to put a price on carbon at this level and with this degree of unison,” said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim.

“It marks a turning point from the debate on the economic systems needed for low carbon growth to the implementation of policies and pricing mechanisms to deliver jobs, clean growth and prosperity. The science is clear, the economics compelling and we now see political leadership emerging to take green investment to scale at a speed commensurate with the climate challenge.”

In under a month, world leaders will be meeting in Paris for the UN climate negotiations, and this new challenge from some of those who will be in attendance — including host nation President François Hollande and the ever-formidable Angela Merkel — is sure to be a topic of discussion. The group are calling on their country, state, and city counterparts from around the world “to join them in pricing carbon to steer the global economy towards a low carbon, productive, competitive future without the dangerous levels of carbon pollution driving warning.”

There are already 40 nations and 23 cities, states, and regions around the world that have implemented or are in the process of implementing a price on carbon, with a variety of programs and policy mechanisms covering approximately 12% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

“Finance ministers need to think about reforms to fiscal systems in order to raise more revenue from taxes on carbon-intensive fuels and less revenue from other taxes that are detrimental to economic performance, such as taxes on labor and capital,” said Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. “They need to evaluate the carbon tax rates that will help them meet their mitigation pledges for Paris and accompanying measures to help low-income households vulnerable to higher energy prices.”

The panel are also wielding a significant amount of private sector support, with institutions such as US institutional investor CalPERS, ENGIE of France, Mahindra Group of India, and Netherlands-based Royal DSM backing the call, and which will help link business needs with public policies through the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition, an action based platform that will be officially launched in Paris on November 30, 2015.

Xi’s state visit to Britain brings up past slights, present steel dumping and the role of the heir apparent to the British throne.

China is dumping steel because their economy is slowing.   In China, because steel is so important it is subsidized.  The steel that’s being dumped is at the price steel producers around the world can’t compete with.  In the US there are dumping tariffs.  Surely the subject will be discussed in on Xi’s state visit.

Prince Charles is a supporter of the Dhali Llama .  He is doing his duty by attending welcoming ceremonies, but will not attend a dinner at Buckingham Palace.  How does his mother feel about this? We don’t know.

Carbon pricing will be a critical piece in global warming control.

Christine Lagarde and Jim Young Kim write:  Carbon pricing policies are already being implemented by some 40 national governments, including that of China, the world’s largest emitter, and 23 cities, states, and regions that are putting a price on carbon. Many other governments also are reforming energy prices, and more than 400 companies report using a voluntary, internal carbon price. That makes sense. Top companies must effectively manage exposure to climate risk in order to generate higher profits and ensure more stable earnings.  Carbon Pricing