In The News

PayPal’s Breakthrough in China: Financial Times

Yuan Yang October 4, 2019
After acquiring a 70 percent stake of GoPay, a small Chinese online payment company and receiving approval from the People’s Bank of China, PayPal is the first foreign company to win Chinese payments license. Visa and Mastercard are waiting for license approvals. PayPal will face a huge market opportunity since China’s third-party online payment has risen to ¥277 trillion in 2018. And PayPal’s...

Myanmar as Asia’s Last Frontier: Korea Herald

Jung Min-kyung September 5, 2019
Myanmar’s government opened its economy this decade, and South Korean firms see “economic potential and geographic attractiveness,” reports Jung Min-kyung for the Korea Herald. For example, Posco International, described as the trade and resources development arm of Korea’s leading steelmaker, has completed a rice processing complex in Myanmar’s rice-producing Ayeyarwady region. The facility...

Microloan Problems in Cambodia: Spiegel

Vanessa Steinmetz August 19, 2019
Even small amounts of debt can contribute to lasting trouble for those living in developing nations. Vanessa Steinmetz describes the plight of a cassava farmer and father of five in Cambodia who struggles to repay a bank microloan of $3250 just before the prices of that commodity fell. He had placed a hectare of his farm as collateral, before selling other land at a loss and taking out another...

China's Central Bank Saves the Day: Forbes

Kenneth Rapoza August 6, 2019
A trade war and US tariffs have eroded the value of China’s currency. The US president announced tariffs and global stock markets declined. The US Treasury Department designated China as a currency manipulator, and China’s central bank announced removing about 30 billion yuan, or $4.2 billion, from the Hong Kong market. China denies the currency manipulation charge. “Many emerging market central...

World's Bond Markets: Bloomberg

John Ainger July 15, 2019
Bonds are generally considered safe investments, and demand pushes yields down. Confronting low wages and low inflation, central banks struggle to raise interest rates. The number of negative-yield bonds is growing: These are worth less than the principal invested when held to maturity. Governments may take on excessive debt as bond issuers essentially charge investors for holding their money....

Facebook’s Libra: Project Syndicate

Katharina Pistor June 24, 2019
Corporations are increasingly eager to resume control over traditional government responsibilities. The latest example: Facebook released a white paper on plans to develop a borderless cryptocurrency system with a group of central banks, regulators and 27 partner companies. Facebook along with Uber, Lyft, Visa, PayPal, Mastercard, eBay, and other firms – but not commercial banks – are...

Financial Tail Wags Economic Dog: Asia Sentinel

Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Michael Lim Mah Hui June 3, 2019
The ability to pay for goods and services now dominates economies and the processes of financing have become a larger goal than actual production. “Financialization involves the growth and transformation of finance such that with its hugely expanded size, scope and concentration, finance now overshadows, dominates and destabilizes the productive economy,” explain Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Michael Lim...