Barry Ben-Zeev

The Credit Database and its Risk Profile for Citizens—Who is it Good for and for Who Less so?

The economic affairs committee just approved a draft of the Credit Data Law for a second and third reading, which opens the doorway for competition in the consumer credit sector in Israel. According to the Credit Data Law, a credit database will be established in the Bank of Israel three years from ...

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Lowering the Interest Rate – Benefits and Risks

A few monthes have passed since the Bank of Israel decided to reduce the interest rate to a historic low of 0.25 percent, further to interest rate reductions prior to this move. The interest rate remained at 0.25 percent in October as well. The low rate resulted from a lack of options, as Israel wit...

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Government Companies Losses: The Problem Goes Far Beyond that of Employee Salaries

An article was published on the “The Marker” website that surveyed the losses of government companies throughout 2013, following the Government Companies Authority report presented to the Minister of Finance, Yair Lapid. According to the report, the companies with the highest level of losses ove...

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Five Insights on The Israeli Labor Party’s Economic Plan

After being recently exposed to the Israeli Labor Party’s (HaAvoda) economic plan, I would like to dedicate this post in order to comment on a few key points which I would like to analyze from a purely-professional economic perspective: Size of the Budget The Labor party declared that they sug...

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The US Elections and the Upcoming Fiscal Cliff

 President Barack Obama has been elected for his second (and last) defeating the Republican Romney-Ryan ticket.  It is not yet clear how would the American public react to the clear and present socio-demographic divide that has never been more real than during the last election cycle. However, wha...

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The Global Economic Crisis is Far From Over

Recently, The United States marked the fourth anniversary to the collapse of Lehman Brothers-Investment Bank, which filed for bankruptcy back in September 2008. In order to properly understand the sequence of events leading to the collapse of Lehman Brothers, as well as the massive impact this scen...

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