Prepare For an OK-ish 2016

摘要

Sometime around April 2016, a third set of locks on the Panama Canal will begin handling ships as much as 2.6 times the size of the biggest ones now able to ply the waterway. U.S. ports from New York to Galveston, Texas, have been gearing up for the traffic. The Port of Houston Authority just finished installing four cranes that are 30 stories high. "More trade means more jobs," Port Chairwoman Janiece Longoria said earlier this year. The opening of the Panama Canal locks is just one likely event in what promises to be an eventful year for the global economy. The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement could win approval from 12 nations that together account for 40 percent of global output. There will be presidential elections in the U.S. and Taiwan, a Summer Olympics in Brazil, and a new five-year plan in China. The biggest event of all could be a referendum in the U.K.-possibly in October-on whether to remain part of the European Union.