Although the economic implications of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) for the EU are modest, the geopolitical and strategic implications are not. With the arrival of a new US administration and the central role of China in the bloc, the EU needs to outline an Asian commercial strategy that reconciles the importance of China and the transatlantic relationship.
Read Here | Bruegel
Governments and central banks have promised to shell out $19.5 trillion since the coronavirus erupted to “put a floor under the world economy,” according to the International Monetary Fund. Some countries need even more help to recover from the crisis, but they might not get it.
Read Here | CNN
Today it’s technology that ties the world together, not the container ship. To be effective in leading the United States in the 21st century… If Biden really intends to get tough with China, he’ll have to double down on the U.S.-Chinese tech war that has seen Huawei crippled, Chinese semiconductor foundries put under severe pressure, and TikTok brought to the edge of divestment.
Read Here | Foreign Policy
The sooner we get the COVID-19 pandemic under control, the sooner we can put the global economy back on track. At a virtual gathering this month, the G20 will have an opportunity to do precisely that, provided that world leaders are able to see the economic windfall that is staring them in the face.
Read Here | Project Syndicate
When it comes into effect in stages over the next several months and years, the AfCFTA will cover a market of more than 1.2 billion people and up to $3 trillion in combined GDP… On its completion, the AfCFTA will become the largest free trade area in the world since the establishment of the World Trade Organization.
Read Here | Foreign Policy
Core dollar exchange rates have so far been surprisingly stable during the pandemic, most likely because major central banks’ policy interest rates are effectively frozen at or near zero. But although the current stasis could last awhile, it will not last forever.
Read Here | Project Syndicate
From the 2008 financial crisis to the COVID-19 shutdown, the world’s best economists have struggled—usually unsuccessfully—to regain the influence over policymakers they once wielded with such abandon. The problem is, most of them don’t have new theories ready that can actually make sense of a globalised world in disarray—and won’t for quite a while.
Read Here | Foreign Policy
American banks, insurance companies and asset managers have lost none of their appetite for making money in China and have met with remarkably little deterrence from US President Donald Trump’s administration. Far from decoupling from China, Wall Street seems more intent on tightening the knot.
Read Here | South China Morning Post
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread with over 1 million lives tragically lost so far. Living with the novel coronavirus has been a challenge like no other, but the world is adapting. As a result of eased lockdowns and the rapid deployment of policy support at an unprecedented scale by central banks and governments around the world, the global economy is coming back from the depths of its collapse in the first half of this year… This crisis is however far from over.
Read Here | IMF Blog
For all the excitement about corporate “stakeholders” and “purpose-driven” firms, the new mode of capitalism is simply a repackaging of the old. Successful companies will continue to focus on the value of their shares over the long term, while avoiding the risks of wading into areas where they don’t belong.
Read Here | Project Syndicate
