Five years ago it would have been unimaginable, but today there is a global movement convinced the world’s largest corporations are engaging in stealth warfare to transform liberal democracies into neo-communist dictatorships. At the heart of this corporate-led Marxist revolution, apparently, is the trend towards businesses not just focusing on profit maximization but taking into […]Continue Reading
Here’s a prediction: In 10 or even 20 years’ time, no reputable economist or statistician will be able to work out convincingly what economic benefit the United Kingdom gained from joining the 11-country Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership in 2023. Those 11 countries are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore […]Continue Reading
While many advanced economy central banks are facing a dilemma over how to fight inflation in the middle of an outbreak of financial instability, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) is facing a unique dilemma of its own. In 2022, Japanese inflation reached 4% — well above the BOJ’s target of 2%. Ten years since the […]Continue Reading
Huawei’s financial results for 2022 show a slight increase in revenue, steep declines in operating and net profit but no red ink, and a sound balance sheet. Considering last year’s Covid lockdown, inflation and the need to work around US sanctions, the Chinese telecom company turned in an admirable performance. Huawei’s operating margin was 6.6%, […]Continue Reading
According to World Bank data, only a handful of economies have risen from middle- to high-income status since 1960, when economic catch-up growth in many developing economies took off. Examples include South Korea, Singapore, Israel and Ireland. Some countries that were high income in 1960 remain so today, such as Denmark and Japan. Others, like Myanmar […]Continue Reading
Over the past two years, a drumbeat of calls for reforming the World Bank has pushed its way onto the front pages of major newspapers and the agenda of heads of state. Many low- and middle-income countries – the population the World Bank is tasked with helping – are falling deeper into debt and facing […]Continue Reading
Chinese people are increasingly using TikTok’s sister app as a way to complain about products and are finding it a powerful asset. Our research shows that Douyin, which is produced by ByteDance the same company that owns TikTok, has become influential in offering Chinese people a way of putting consumer pressure on companies. This short-video […]Continue Reading
China and Russia have agreed to strengthen economic ties after top leaders held high-profile meetings in Moscow, but Chinese investment in Russia’s underdeveloped Far East region is not a done deal. Since mid-2022, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has promoted a proposal for Chinese investment in 79 projects worth about US$165 billion across energy, mining […]Continue Reading
Federal Reserve policymakers have targeted a “soft landing” for the US economy since beginning their effort a year ago to tame runaway inflation by hiking interest rates. That is, they believed they could do so without sending the US into recession. But the Fed’s decision to raise rates by a quarter point on March 22, […]Continue Reading
Protectionist trade policies and the lack of an economic agenda for East and Southeast Asia have become central themes in critiques of US policy towards the region and its approach to managing US-China “strategic competition.” According to these accounts, US protectionism undermines its economic draw in East Asia — and the political leverage stemming from it — at a time when it has […]Continue Reading