In The News

After the Boom, The Bust. Now What?

Zhang Hong December 12, 2008
Unemployment is on the climb in China, possibly approaching as high as 20 percent, and that could trigger some social unrest. Having lost their jobs, several million migrant workers are returning to their rural homes. Journalist Zhang Hong suggests that any unrest will be minimal as long as workers can use their savings, reduce expenses and receive fair compensation for any work done. Students...

Asia's Tourism: Boon and Bane

Patricia Kowsmann December 10, 2008
The global crisis, precipitated from the US financial market's losses, affects real economies in Southeast Asia: As travelers feel the squeeze, countries lower prospects for their once-lucrative tourism industries. Across the region, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, authorities revise estimates for 2008 and no longer forecast a large annual gain in the tourism...

A Question of First Things First

Clive Crook December 9, 2008
The ancient proverb of finding opportunity in crisis sounds wonderful, but the follow-through can be problematic. Transition staff working for US President-elect Barack Obama hope to enact health care reform and a clean-energy policy. But an economic crisis may not be the time to take on grand new initiatives, suggests Clive Crook, in an essay for the Financial Times. The Obama administration...

India’s Reverse Diaspora

Steven L. Raymer December 5, 2008
Indians still move abroad to work or study, but increasing numbers of restless immigrants are now turning to their ancestral land for opportunity. “By several estimates, between 50,000 and 60,000 information-technology professionals alone have returned to India from overseas since 2003, most to the suburbs of New Delhi, Hyderabad and especially Bangalore, the nexus of what Indians call their...

Japan's Doing Better Than You Think

Philip Bowring December 5, 2008
Financial analysts in the West often point to Japan as an example of what not to do during an economic downturn. “[A]voidance of the Japan experience with deflation is often given as a reason for the United States, the United Kingdom and the Eurozone as a whole (trying to drag Germany with it) to justify almost any level of bailout-outs and fiscal stimulus to revive their economies,” explains...

Switzerland Pays Price for Isolationism

Joshua Gallu December 5, 2008
Switzerland has long been known as “a custodian of the world’s wealth,” but the recent credit crunch has hit all banks hard and Swiss policies of isolation have not made the nation immune against effects of the economic downturn. The Swiss franc is losing value to the dollar, and the Swiss economy is expected to contract. Swiss bank UBS faced the biggest losses in Europe and had to be aided with...

The Local Syndrome

Nayan Chanda December 3, 2008
The global economy is in a shambles, due to a credit crunch, uncertain values of homes and other assets, and complex loan packages that few people understand. US President George Bush convened a meeting of 20 major economies and acknowledged that emerging economies like China, India and Brazil deserve a role in any institutions that monitor the global economy, that protectionism and nationalism...