Greek opinions about Germans are changing. When “austerity measures” were first imposed, Greek newspapers and posters infamously depicted Chancellor Merkel as a Nazi leader. But the reaction has lately become more sophisticated: now we hear that Germans want to pursue a strict interpretation of Protestant ethics (which knows no redemption on earth) and punish the […]
The growing focus of Indian companies, including government ones, on emerging markets across Asia and Africa, and the attendant political risks of doing business in a dynamic policy regime—a problem that several Western multinationals have encountered in India—has highlighted a new challenge for New Delhi: protecting the overseas investments of Indian firms. Earlier this week, […]
Is the People’s Republic of China (PRC) trying to implode the Japanese economy? It is starting to look that way. The PRC has counterprogramed the US pivot to Asia – and US advantages in military and softpower – by leveraging its economic strengths. When Japan kicked off this year’s edition of the Senkaku (Diaoyu) Follies […]
A recent report on the humdrum subject of plans to build new coal-burning plants to generate electricity helps to explain why Asia – led by its rising economic giants, China and India – is at the epicentre of concern about global warming and climate change. Policy makers from nearly all of the world’s countries meet […]
Under sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its allies, dollars are hard to come by in Iran. The rial fell from 20,160 against the greenback on the street market in August to 36,500 rials to the dollar in October. It’s settled, for now, around 27,000. The central bank’s fixed official rate is 12,260. Yet there’s […]
As he looks ahead to 2013, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is cautiously optimistic. Lee believes Europeans have made some progress in trying to defuse the euro debt crisis, and while tensions between China and its neighbors have risen because of territorial disputes, he is confident about the role the U.S. plays as part […]
Tens of thousands of Egyptians rallied on Tuesday against President Mohamed Mursi in one of the biggest outpourings of protest since Hosni Mubarak‘s overthrow, accusing the Islamist leader of seeking to impose a new era of autocracy. Police fired tear gas at stone-throwing youths in streets near the main protest in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, heart […]
For Shinzo Abe, it isn’t enough to see Sony Corp. and Panasonic Corp., two icons of industrialJapan, reduced to junk-debt status. The man who probably will become prime minister next month might do the same for the yen. That is the upshot of his desire to browbeat the Bank of Japan into unlimited easing. Granted, his Liberal Democratic […]
Malaysia’s economic performance does not make headlines like it used to, but that does not mean that the economy is not still chugging along nicely. In fact, with the exception of difficult periods following major shocks such as the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, Malaysian GDP growth has performed well over the last decade, averaging about […]
Lee Bok Sun is planning to close her 28-year-old fruit store in Seoul for good. Many of her customers have switched to a new hypermarket owned by one of South Korea’s chaebol, the family-controlled business groups that dominate the economy. “My baby brother gave me the money to start this shop to thank me for […]
