Xi’s Wise Men

Past Chinese presidents have left the finer points of the economy to their premiers. Not Xi Jinping.  Since taking over the ruling Communist Party in November 2012, Xi has given himself direct control over both short-term financial policies and broader economic planning. He exercises this power through two secretive “leading groups,” one a reform panel […]

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China Wants Great Power, Not Great Responsibility

Forty-three years after Richard Nixon made his famous visit to China, that country has seemingly decided to take a page from the former U.S. president’s Treasury Department. As China lowers the value of the yuan, the country’s economic policy makers are mimicking the blasé attitude of Nixon-era Treasury chief John Connally, who dismissed international complaints […]

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Will the World Ever Boom Again?

The problem is that China’s recent slowdown from 10 percent annual growth to about 7 percent is only the beginning. The recent drops in housing and stock prices are harbingers of a further economic moderation. That is inevitable, since no country can grow at a breakneck pace forever. And with the slowing of China, Brazil […]

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China’s International Growth Agenda

For most of the past 35 years, China’s policymakers have set their focus on the domestic economy, with reforms designed to allow the market to provide efficiency and accurate price signals. Though they had to be increasingly aware of their country’s growing impact on the global economy, they had no strategy to ensure that China’s […]

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Americans Buy A Fifth Of China’s Exports

Americans bought almost $1 out of every $5 worth of goods that China exported in May, the highest share since August 2010. While Chinese shipments to trading partners including Japan, Europe and South Korea tumbled last month from a year ago, those to the U.S. climbed 7.8 percent. That helped make America the destination for 18.8 […]

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Chimerica in Decline?

The term “Chimerica” has been the epitome of the wishful thinking of liberal intellectuals around the world who deterministically infer that U.S. and Chinese economic interdependence ensures a peaceful hegemonic transition. According to this argument, as both Washington and Beijing engage in a positive sum economic relationship and enhance their material position ad infinitum, the […]

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That Loud, Hissing Sound…

Expectations that India’s prime minister would revolutionize a troubled economy overnight were wildly overblown. But three months on, even some Modi skeptics may be wondering if they have been too easy on the great modernizer from Gujarat. Since taking office, Modi has scuttled a global trade deal, sidestepped much-needed subsidy cuts, and refrained from letting […]

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