Category: International Economy, The

China and the financing of American debt: watch the all-important commodity-producing nations David Hale Global policymakers are once again putting China in the limelight. At the recent IMF meeting, G7 finance ministers invited the Chinese to their dinner for the first time in history. A few days later, President Bush called President Hu Jintao to […]

Is the Chinese currency, the renminbi, dangerously undervalued and a threat to the global economy? Over thirty important experts offer their views – A Symposium Of Views Background: Chinese companies themselves–with their virtually zero marginal labor cost work force–lack global reach. But are foreign companies now investing heavily in China as a manufacturing base setting […]

Haitian heroines: women are the backbone of Haiti’s market system. But they need help—desperately Leara Rhodes During a visit to Haiti, Daniel Morel, an Associated Press photojournalist, met me at my downtown Port-au-Prince hotel Sunday morning at 5:45. We were going to Sucre, a village about 150 kilometers north of the capital, to cover the […]

Fukui’s mission impossible: some now argue the Bank of Japan—with a would-be reformer at the helm—is the answer to Japan’s economic malaise. Actually, the Central Bank is still part of the problem Tadashi Nakamae The gist of my last article for The International Economy was as follows: The capital investment bubble of the late 1980s […]

Stuffed shirts vs. ‘skins: an econometric critic tells how to predict the presidential race Edward M. Graham For nearly two hundred years, journalists and other pundits have sought a rule of thumb (or two) that might accurately predict the outcome of U.S. presidential elections. Since 2000, this search must be informed by two important events: […]

The incredible shrinking prime minister; after promising a revolution of reform, Japan’s Junichiro Koizumi is just more of the same Brett M. Decker Just as investors and analysts were beginning to write off Japan for good, Junichiro Koizumi galloped onto the political scene. Thumbing his nose at the business elite, the bureaucratic Mafia and the […]

Bankers’ nightmare? Think American bankers are thrilled with the rise of Richard Shelby as the new chair of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee? Think again. Long-time Washington journalist Robert Novak, who interviewed the Republican legislator and past supporter of consumer privacy rights, puts things in perspective Robert Novak The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and […]

The Real Trouble With Japanese Debt Adam S. Posen Illiquidity, not insolvency, exacerbated by a central bank out to lunch. Japan’s debt numbers keep rising, to levels never seen by Belgium or Italy, and the Japanese government’s bond rating keeps sinking. Scary figures like a projected debt-to-GDP ratio in excess of 170 percent are pointed […]

Truth in trade: how current is the U.S. current account? Harry L. Freeman It seems like every month when the government issues new data we worry that the current account deficit expands yet again and doesn’t seem likely to head back into balance any time soon. Analysts predict that the deficit, which reached $393.4 billion […]

Geithner takes charge – Off The News Within days the story made the rounds of the international community: At the recent meeting in New York of the Group of Thirty, a discussion club of current mad former international economic officials, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker had this to say about the new youngish-looking President […]