China less hesitant to fill Afghan power vacuum

China is one of the few countries which are committed to expanding negotiations with the Taliban government in Afghanistan. Beijing hopes to expand its use of vast natural resources while also improving its very own geopolitical security. In mid-2021 China made welcome a Taliban delegation, showing its willingness to recognize the Taliban government as the US signaled […]#@@#@!!Continue Reading

Desperate Vietnamese draining social insurance accounts

At the end of 2022, there were reports of long queues of employees in Ho Chi Minh City who had been waiting since dawn at several local offices to claim lump sum payments from their social insurance premiums. Many Vietnamese workers view their social insurance premiums as a kind of savings mechanism and are inclined to seek early access […]Continue Reading

Fed slows rate hikes but signals more to come

To anyone wondering how high interest rates will go and when they will start coming down, the Federal Reserve has just provided an answer: “We still don’t know.” That’s the real meaning of the quarter-point interest rate increase the Fed announced Wednesday and the signals it sent in making the announcement. Financial markets read those […]Continue Reading