In The News

The Presidency, Chained to the World

Matt Bai September 14, 2010
The US has plenty of problems at home, including high unemployment, a deteriorating infrastructure and a voter base polarized over basics like health care, financial regulation and energy needs. But pressing crises from all parts of the globe repeatedly demand attention and take priority. “[P]owerlessness in the face of economic free fall has emerged as a hallmark of the modern presidency,”...

Banks Back Switch to Renminbi for Trade

Robert Cookson September 1, 2010
As China’s economy continues to grow, the largest banks from around the globe seek favor and rapid profits there. HSBC relocated its chief executive from London to Hong Kong and, along with Citigroup and some other banks, HSBC offers discounts for companies that use the renminbi rather than the dollar for trading. “With renminbi trade settlement volumes expected to increase rapidly, banks are...

A Cash-Strapped US Faces Diminished Political Clout

Michael Mandelbaum August 31, 2010
The US continues to confront record budget deficits, high unemployment rates, stagnant revenues and global recession – with no clear end in sight. Individual citizens, worried about rising taxes and health-care costs as well as cuts to traditional programs for the elderly, want to cut spending. Naturally, such a bleak economic outlook results in reduced US expenditures on foreign products or...

Western Profits Wilt on China's Surging Wages

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard August 31, 2010
As wages rise in China, companies of the West recognize that they cannot pass higher costs of manufacturing electronics or clothing onto their consumers who hold their purses tightly, amidst worries about the recession. “Reliance on Chinese plants is suddenly proving double-edged,” observes Ambrose Evans-Pritchard for the Telegraph. Some companies plan for reduced profits or shifting production...

Joys and Pains of a Global Paradigm Shift

Michael Casey August 27, 2010
In a world with immense wage inequality, two world views emerge, explains Michael Casey for the Wall Street Journal. Attitudes are relative, depending on whether one’s circumstances are improving or declining. Global economic power is in an ongoing shift from high-wage to low-wage nations, he argues, and if indeed deflation is underway, that represents additional hardship for the high-wage...

Time to Sort Out the Long Overdue Doha Round

Hugh Corbet August 26, 2010
Expanding trade has enriched the world, and completing the Doha Round of negotiations could deliver nations – both rich and poor – from stagnation. The round of World Trade Organization negotiations began in 2001 as an effort to ease poverty by reducing trade barriers. But wealthy nations resist ending protections for their agricultural industries. “By offering to reduce agricultural subsidies...

The World Economy Needs Balancing, But How?

David Dapice August 3, 2010
Many nations seek economic relief by promoting exports. But a trade system built on all exports and no imports is an impossible feat to achieve. To lift economies from recession's mire, nations pursue, among other things, domestic rebalancing by curtailing unsustainable, wasteful spending and the borrowing that triggered the global downturn. On the other hand, the target markets for much of...