In The News

June 7, 2019
The world’s major economies agreed in a draft statement to accelerate tax collection from multinational digital companies like Google and Facebook. “The G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors will also warn that the world economy continues to face downside risks from trade conflicts between leading economies, while calling for accommodative monetary policy to ensure the economy is...
June 4, 2019
This decade has witnessed a strengthening of economic ties between a number of Middle Eastern countries and China. While previously the Middle East was seen primarily as a petrol station, explains the Economist, with nearly half of China’s oil supplied by Arab countries and Iran, there was little direct foreign investment. The Economist reports that since 2010, Chinese investment has skyrocketed...
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...
Gerald F. Seib May 14, 2019
The United States is the world’s largest economy in nominal terms and also the largest market. But flexing economic muscle could chase other major economies like China and the European Union to pursue their own partnerships. Under the Trump administration, the United States has applied economic leverage on China, Mexico, Canada, Europe, Iran, North Korea and Venezuela. “The weapon works, at least...
Manfred Elfstrom April 29, 2019
Western democracies struggle to deal with a rising China amid new policies on trade, security and cultural outreach. Manfred Elfstrom reviews trends including concentration of political power with increased oversight and demands for absolute loyalty; reduced emphasis and delays on domestic reforms, including work conditions or the social safety net; and attempts to contain grassroots efforts to...
April 24, 2019
China and India at times engage in a process of mythmaking and historical erasure in championing their thousands of years of history. A recent article for the Economist observes, “Nowhere more than in Asia do states and their rulers tend to think they represent not just, say, defined territories or peoples with a shared language, but rather whole civilizations, often cosmically ordained.” However...
April 17, 2019
China posts a high savings rate, but the country needs pension reforms. Some workers do not receive benefits to which they are entitled. The median age is 37.3 and with a low fertility rate and improved health care, the population is aging. Caixin describes the pension system in crisis and need for national coordination with fair distribution among provinces – “an inevitable requirement for the...