In The News

The Asia-Pacific Journal, Japan Focus: US-Chinese Tensions in the Trump Era – The Pitfalls of Economic Codependency

Stephen S. Roach March 4, 2017
Strident rhetoric about competitors and rivals is common in US presidential campaigns, and the Trump administration has appinted a team whose "anti-China credentials are without modern precedent,” explains Stephen Roach, author and Yale faculty member for the Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. “Its initial pronouncements point to a wide range of economic and political sanctions – from...

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...

Brookings: Housing Africa

Vera Songwe February 21, 2017
As Africa’s population grows and moves to urban areas, one major challenge facing the continent will be housing. McKinsey estimates that by 2025, over 90 percent of young people in Africa will live in urban areas. Policymakers and the private sector must work to make millions of new housing units available and affordable. Vera Songwe, writing for Brookings, urges governments to work with the...

The Wall Street Journal on the Economy’s Hidden Problem: We’re Out of Big Ideas

Greg Ip February 1, 2017
Innovations seem to be plentiful, but many developments so far are not leading to “meaningful advances in Americans’ standard of living,” explains Greg Ip for the Wall Street Journal. He adds that “improvements in everyday life have been incremental, not revolutionary” and an “innovation slump,” due to society’s impatience and fear of risk, contributes to middle-class dissatisfaction. Industry...

Are Chinese Enterprises Being Taxed to Death?

Zhang Jun January 10, 2017
Chinese firms establish overseas branches to flee high taxes. One company spokesperson suggested that China’s taxes are 35 percent higher for manufacturers in China than the United States, and Zhang Jun, a professor of economics at Fudan University, analyzes the complaint for Project Syndicate. A strict interpretation suggests that China’s tax burden is 29 percent and 10 percent less than global...

Alaska Airport Is a Big Link for the Global Supply Chain

Will Swagel January 5, 2017
Alaska is sparsely populated with about 750,000 people. Still, the state’s largest city has emerged as a vital link along the global supply chain, and the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport takes full advantage of being within 10 hours by air to 90 percent of the industrialized world. The subarctic airport ranks fourth in the world for cargo and is a “natural place for refueling,”...

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...