The first time I met Raghuram Rajan, the Indian economist couldn’t sit still. It was over coffee in Bangkok in November 2008, less than two months after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. imploded and almost took the global financial system down with it. Rajan had become a big draw by then, having warned as early as 2005 […]
The great paradox of British politics is that the left moan about inequality, but it’s the right who will remedy it. Ed Miliband is proposing the restoration of the old order, where the poor get the worst schools and the rich get the best (and the opportunities that flow from it). Labour plans to tax […]
Populist economics is on the rise in Southeast Asia. Politicians have been actively adopting policies that aim to impress upon the poor that governments are doing something, however trivial, to improve their conditions. It is generally a positive development but is it sustainable? Thailand’s Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted as Prime Minister in 2006 but has remained popular […]
It’s a rare afternoon in the Chinese capital when smog hasn’t blocked the skies, and one of China‘s most famous economists is in a sanguine mood. The economy is in trouble as the Communist Party heads for a once-in-a-decade transfer of power while prosecuting its former golden boy, Bo Xilai, on criminal charges. Worried investors […]
Premier Yingluck Shinawatra has repeated the phrase often enough – to the point that she might finally be convinced of the statement herself: “I am the prime minister and I am in charge.” Even die-hard sceptics will have to admit that the premier has recently demonstrated a higher degree of confidence in her work – […]
We see a positive trend of significant expansion of democracy, particularly in the second half of the 20th century. Democracy expanded in many regions of the world. It also swept Indonesia in 1997 – and changed us for good. As a result, the political map of the world was significantly changed, with all its strategic, […]
The current trade dispute between the United States and China isn’t the first and won’t be the last. This one involves auto parts. Earlier it was solar panels. Before that: rare earth minerals. Next it will be something else. All of these disputes will be resolved in due course. They are important for many reasons. […]
Some months after the invasion of Iraq and the toppling of Saddam Hussein, I sat at lunch with the aging Hosni Mubarak. He was then 76 years old and hard of hearing but soon to “run” for the presidency for a fifth time in 2005. The four times previous, there had been no election at […]
Vice President Joe Biden and rival Republican Paul Ryan battled fiercely over foreign policy and the economy in a lively debate on Thursday, with Biden aggressively defending the administration’s policies and dismissing Ryan’s criticism. Seeking to win back the momentum for the Democrats‘ campaign after a poor debate performance by President Barack Obama last week, […]
There is the United States of America and then there is the ‘idea’ of USA that exists in the minds of significant portions of the middle classes all across the globe. How this looks in real life varies slightly according to the region of the world, reflecting specific aspirations and anxieties. In the subcontinent, the […]
