NPR (National Public Radio in the US) has two excellent podcasts about money and inflationary expectations:
The first is the use of stones as money in the Island of Yap.
The second is about controlling inflationary expectations using a fake currency - A Unit of Real Value.
Here is an article from The Economist on emerging markets - Brazil and Russia are in trouble. And another, another which is about the high levels of corporate debt in these countries - this debt is issued in places like the Cayman Islands, partly to get around capital controls.
We are discussing Brazil for the next two weeks so I am posting some articles from The Economist.
A special report on Brazil: September 2013
Some more recent articles
And the IMF's change of heart about Capital Controls ... although it would appear they still are no substitute for good macro policies and a sound financial system.
Bottom line is that many governments look to demand side policies to fix business environment or supply side problems - it just does not work. This is funny because fixing the supply side is 'in the hands of the government' as it were - the issues are purely domestic, yet they appear to make little progress on infrastructure, education, taxes, institutions, corruption .... instead they call for 'global regulation' and 'international coordination' of demand side issues.
In 2016-17 things are looking up for Brazil (at some point things are so bad, that they do have to get better) and the government has tried to do something about the labour market and pensions.