Should Beijing raise subway fares?
Reuters had an article yesterday about the rumors, and I too have heard about this over the past couple of months, that Beijing will raise subway prices. This topic is pretty specific and specialized...
View ArticleChina, Europe, and optimal currency zones
I typically think of four main factors that determine whether or not an economy can function efficiently as a single currency or economic zone. They primarily determine the level of adjustments costs...
View ArticleHow might a China slowdown affect the world?
Two years ago it was hard to find analysts who expected average GDP growth over the rest of this decade to be less than 8%. The current consensus seems to have dropped to between 6% and 7% on average....
View ArticleMy reading of the FT on China’s “turning away from the dollar”
The Financial Times ran a very interesting article last week called “China: Turning away from the dollar”. It got a lot of attention, at least among China analysts, and I was asked several times by...
View ArticleInterview on Chinese CPI and PPI data for December
The National Bureau of Statistics released today CPI and PPI data for December 2014. People’s Daily summarizes the CPI data, which came in pretty close to market expectations: China’s consumer prices...
View ArticleInverted balance sheets and doubling the financial bet
On Tuesday the National Bureau of Statistics released China’s 2014 GDP growth numbers and reported growth consistent with what the government has been widely promoting as the “new normal”. According to...
View ArticleCan monetary policy turn Argentina into Japan?
Monetary policy is as much about politics as it is economics. It affects the ways in which wealth is created, allocated, and retained and it determines the balance of power between providers of capital...
View ArticleSyriza and the French indemnity of 1871-73
European nationalists have successfully convinced us, against all logic, that the European crisis is a conflict among nations, and not among economic sectors. Today’s Financial Times has an article...
View ArticleWhen do we decide that Europe must restructure much of its debt?
It is hard to watch the Greek drama unfold without a sense of foreboding. If it is possible for the Greek economy partially to revive in spite of its tremendous debt burden, with a lot of hard work and...
View ArticleWill the AIIB one day matter?
When Isaac, an editor at Foreign Policy, sent me an email two weeks ago asking if I could write a piece on the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), I quickly wrote back promising 1,200...
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