In The News

Biggest Growth Story? Outside the US

Russ Koesterich January 21, 2013
The gridlock in US Congress, its reliance on last-minute, short-term fixes for well-documented problems, is reducing confidence, threatening credit ratings and low interest rates for borrowers, worrying investors and decreasing tax revenues. So far, opposing parties in Congress refuse to compromise on substantial reform of the US tax code or costly entitlement programs, especially costly health...

Laos Could Bear Cost of Chinese Railroad

Jane Perlez, Bree Feng January 8, 2013
China is financing a railway from Southern China to Laos, Thailand and Burma – “China considers it vital to its strategy of pulling Southeast Asia closely into its orbit and providing Beijing with another route to transport oil from the Middle East,” report Jane Perlez and Bree Feng for the New York Times. Laos is taking on tremendous debt for the project, and the bulk of trade benefits are...

Put Doomsday on the Schedule

David Dapice January 7, 2013
Americans, like most citizens all over the world, resent paying taxes, but are fond of government programs that allow health care, education or science to flourish. The US is overextended, living beyond its means, and Congress is divided over how to ease the climbing debt: Liberal Democrats want to tax the rich, while conservative Republicans aim to reduce spending that help citizens. Congress...

How Chinese Economic Policy Could Save Club Med Countries

Mohnish Pabrai January 7, 2013
Deep in debt, desperate to borrow for reduced daily operations, Mediterranean countries contemplate unloading valuable properties. Instead of selling desirable properties, investor Mohnish Pabrai urges Greece, Spain and Italy to create special economic zones that bypass stringent national labor regulations and lease these properties to skilled managers who could then hire millions of unemployed,...

Reelected Obama Looks at Fiscal Cliff

David Dapice November 7, 2012
President Barack Obama has won the hard fought battle for a second term. But he has no time to rest or celebrate. The president and US politicians must hurry to put finances in order, warns economist David Dapice. Congress failing to agree on raising taxes or cut spending invoked a deus ex machina of painful automatic cuts and deadlines. In summer of 2011, the US Congress came close to...

China Play in US Election

Edward Gresser October 15, 2012
US politicians often gripe about China, but campaign promises to “get tough” aren’t easy to keep. China is the third largest export market for US products. The Obama administration has already heightened enforcement of trade laws and filed more trade complaints than the previous administration. Even so, Mitt Romney’s website suggests that the Obama administration extends “acquiescence to the one-...

Will Printing Money Do It?

Nayan Chanda October 9, 2012
Central banks can add to the money supply by lowering interest rates for major financial institutions and purchasing bonds, thus increasing credit and liquidity – and this is what major central banks in the West have set out to do until economic growth and jobs return. The practice amounts to “printing money.” For example, the US vows to insert $40 billion each month into the economy to purchase...