Fed’s ‘soft landing’ likely to land in recession

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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

All eyes on PBOC as US banking woes go global

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Yi Gang, the governor of the People's Bank of China, has tried to reassure investors. Photo: AFP / Wang Zhao

If Governor Yi Gang’s staff at the People’s Bank of China had been planning a vacation in 2023, it might be time to cancel. The PBOC’s surprise move on March 27 to lower the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) for financial institutions by 25 basis points is the first official acknowledgment that troubles from Silicon Valley […]Continue Reading

US Federal Reserve in high-wire rate decision

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The Federal Reserve faces a pivotal decision on March 22, 2023: whether to continue its aggressive fight against inflation or put it on hold. Making another big interest rate hike would risk exacerbating the global banking turmoil sparked by Silicon Valley Bank’s failure on March 10. Raising rates too little, or not at all as […]Continue Reading

Democracy is struggling with itself

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In: Asia

Democracies have had a dismal start in the 21st century. Opinion surveys around the world show a counter-intuitive trend: Citizens of democratic nations are more pessimistic about the future of their countries than people living in quasi-democratic or one-party states, often by wide margins. Similar trends can be seen when people are asked about the […]Continue Reading