In The News

Project Syndicate: How Imports Boost Employment

Anne Krueger March 1, 2017
Trade – even imports – creates jobs in many ways, explains Anne Krueger, a former World Bank chief economist and a senior research professor of International Economics. Jobs include those associated with ports and retail sales as well as foreign direct investment. Companies that save money can direct more effort to innovation and R&D, and with the most efficient goods and services available,...

The Weekly Standard: Of Debt and Detriment

Benn Steil and Emma Smith February 21, 2017
Macroeconomic theory predicts that indebted countries have negative net foreign investment income, while creditor countries have positive flows. The US and China, however, are bucking the trend due to the idiosyncratic natures of both their currencies and governments. One element is China’s willingness, and the world writ large, to accept low returns on the dollar in exchange for stability. About...

Emerging Market Investors Prepare to Buckle Up for 2017

Roger Blitz and Elaine Moore January 2, 2017
Emerging markets are growing, lifted by rising commodity prices and foreign investment. However, a rising dollar, higher interest rates and protectionist policies as promised from developed countries will pose challenges. “US relations with China will cause EM [emerging markets] much angst,” write Roger Blitz and Elaine Moore for Financial Times. They add that countries that have diversified...

China Set to Rescue Australia Economy at Just the Right Time

Michael Heath December 9, 2016
A precipitous decline in global commodity prices since 2011 left Australia struggling financially, but the recent Chinese stimulus spending brightened the economic prospects. Exports are increasing as Chinese manufacturing and industry ramps up, and Australia is “the developed world’s most China-dependent economy,” reports Michael Heath for Bloomberg. During the period of low commodity prices,...

Foreign Companies Face New Clampdown for Getting Money Out of China

James T. Areddy and Lingling Wei December 8, 2016
China, less keen about the yuan becoming a global currency, abruptly applied a new limit for capital outflows. “China’s foreign-exchange regulator has instructed banks to sharply limit how much companies move out of the country and into their other operations around the world,” report James T. Areddy and Lingling Wei for the Wall Street Journal. “The recent moves effectively erode the yuan’s...

Chinese Billionaire Makes Aggressive Moves in Hollywood

Ryan Faughnder and David Pierson October 5, 2016
The Dalian Wanda Group could be intent on learning the arts of soft power. After the Chinese conglomerate purchased a Hollywood production company and a large movie theater chain for a combined $6 billion, 16 members of US Congress urged the comptroller general to consider if new standards should be applied to similar foreign acquisitions. The September 15 letter raises the possibility of Chinese...

Britain Approves Controversial Chinese-Financed Nuclear-Reactor, With a Catch

Griff Witte September 22, 2016
British Prime Minister Theresa May hesitantly agreed to a nuclear power plant, Britain’s first in decades, financed in part by China with a controlling stake by EDF, a French firm. May, who came to power after the Brexit referendum in June, and others in her staff have expressed concern that a large Chinese investment in British energy could leave Britain vulnerable should geostrategic interests...