Were London a city-state, it would have the 20th-largest national economy in the world – larger than the national economies of Saudi Arabia, Argentina and South Africa. Were London a city-state, its national per capita gross domestic product would be greater than that of the United States. Were London a city-state, it would be the […]
Thanks to the dollar’s outsize global role, the first casualties of a somewhat irresponsible U.S. fiscal policy are likely to be emerging economies that have used the dollar to denominate their debts, not the United States itself. A stronger dollar and rising U.S. interest rates are increasing the burden of paying all dollar-denominated debts around the world. […]
Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia Philip Lowe’s speech last week highlighting the risks to the Chinese financial system from shadow banks – non-bank financial institutions often operating in more lightly regulated wholesale markets – has once again drawn attention to the major economic risk in China. Read Here – Lowy Institute
As Cui, China’s man in Washington, suggests, Xi’s team is now “looking at all options.” While Trump doing his worst with tariffs is worrying, the idea of Xi pulling the plug on the dollar is positively terrifying. Trump must remember that even though he runs the biggest economy, Xi holds the deed. Read Here – […]
China’s economy begins 2018 facing what its own leaders call three years of “critical battles.” Those fights to tackle domestic debt, poverty and pollution pose a hat-trick of risks to the world’s No. 2 economy even before higher interest rates and trade war threats from the U.S. are taken into account. While the nation is starting […]
It was a great year for copper, Ukrainian stocks, palladium. Uzbekistan’s currency, Venezuelan bonds and sugar not so much. It was a great year to hold bitcoin, but a bad time to have been invested in the Uzbek soum. Read Here – Bloomberg
Common sense goes that the first step in solving any problem is recognising there is one. But if one ignores the problem and allows it to balloon to the edge of a crisis before recognising the severity of the issue, that means common sense has long gone out the window and all one is left with […]
The legacy of 2007 is still with us. Its most devastating and destructive effect was to put a premium on unconventional monetary measures. Unfortunately, when policymakers scrambled in search of “big bazookas” ten years ago, they set the stage for the return of an old character: a strongman willing to pull the trigger. Read Here […]
When Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule two decades ago, the city was seen as a model of what China might one day become: prosperous, modern, international, with the broad protections of the rule of law…Yet as the 20th anniversary of the handover approaches on Saturday, that perception of Hong Kong as something special — a vibrant crossroads of […]
Reform is always easier when a crisis leaves policy makers no other options. But without further change, Asia will continue to rely too much on debt instead of productivity gains for growth. In poorer nations, improvements in household welfare will lag. As in the years before 1997, economic irregularities could build up to the point […]
looking beyond borders 