Today the strategic forecasting firm Stratfor released a comparison report dealing with the “Geography of Recession“. I’ll let you subscribe to the actual post, but the main gist of it is that the US is far better off than its competitors at weathering the recession. What’s more, the US compares far favorably to China, and […]
U.S. Treasury Secretary Geithner appears to have had a nice meeting with Chinese leaders today. Smoothing over any ruffled feathers of the recent past. Stressing cooperation. Setting it up nicely for a little Obama administration “good cop, bad cop” routine, starting with a meeting in late July, with Secretary of State Clinton playing the role of the baton-wielding heavy.
A long-time China hand, Mandarin speaker, East Asia major at SAIS, son of an East Asia expert who opened the Ford Foundation’s office in Beijing, U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is in China to jumpstart the Obama administration’s “strategic and economic dialogue.” This effort puts a stamp of change on Bush’s “strategic economic dialogue,” the so-called G-2, or regular meetings between […]
A lot. India has come under increased fire by international human rights groups for its lack of action during Sri Lanka’s war against the Tamil Tiger rebels (LTTE). Some have even called India complicit in the killing of 20,000 Tamil civilians in Sri Lankan due to its provision of arms to the Sri Lankan government, […]
Arvind Subramanian, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and Center for Global Development, published a good commentary in the Business Standard arguing that India can learn from China’s strong public finances – a sound fiscal position is crucial for establishing international influence. “The lesson for superpower-aspiring India from superpower-arriving China is simple: […]
“One can date precisely China’s debut as a great power,” writes Fareed Zakaria in the latest issue of Newsweek. “It was the evening of Aug. 8, 2008 – the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics. The event perfectly symbolized China’s rise, a spectacular and expensive feat of mass organization, directed by the country’s highly competent […]
Who will emerge stronger after the crisis? China or the United States? The New America Foundation and Foreign Policy hosted a debate on Tuesday about how the Great Recession will alter the global balance of power. “Which economy is poised to recover from the deepest recession since the 1930s? Who will be on top? Who […]
The presidents of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan met in Tehran on Sunday to discuss shared challenges and how the countries could work together to address regional issues. President Hamid Karzai, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and President Asif Ali Zardari agreed to jointly tackle extremism, terrorism and drug trafficking. Although largely devoid of specific measures, the summit […]
North Korea performed a nuclear test this weekend which, according to various seismic tests, amounted to a blast of somewhere between 4 and 20 kilotons (possibly larger than the US’ bombing of Hiroshima in 1945). The significance of the test cannot be discounted, as Pyongyang’s 2006 blast was a mere 1 kt. With increased missile […]
206. On Friday, Manmohan Singh was sworn in as India’s prime minister. Mr. Singh is the first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to return to office after serving a full five-year term. The Congress Party unexpectedly romped to victory by a big margin in the world’s largest exercise in democracy. Instead of an unwieldy and […]
Embedded video from <a href=”http://www.cnn.com/video” mce_href=”http://www.cnn.com/video”>CNN Video</a> Nandan Nilekani, Co-Chairman of Infosys and author of Imagining India, spoke with Fareed Zakaria about India’s economic potential on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS. Nilekani argues that India’s democracy is a strength in economic development, the country’s population is an asset not a liability and its “strategic opportunity is […]
Embedded video from <a href=”http://www.cnn.com/video” mce_href=”http://www.cnn.com/video”>CNN Video</a> United States President Barack Obama recently nominated Republican Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. as the next ambassador to China. President Obama reached into the Republican ranks for a key foreign policy position and likely removed one of his strongest potential challengers in the 2012 presidential campaign. During the […]
Yesterday, the Czech Republic hosted a joint EU-China summit that was originally scheduled for December. The meeting was delayed then because of French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s meeting with the Dalai Lama. This time, China made clear to tell the EU to stay out of its internal business. 2 main topics were on the agenda: the […]
Moody’s reports that, since the onset of the crisis, Latin American and Caribbean sovereigns sustained negative rating actions in only 5 out of 27 cases, versus 12 out of 21 in Eastern Europe. Similar trends can be found at the other major rating agencies (S&P and Fitch).
Nuclear-arms talks between the United States and Russia get underway today in Moscow. The negotiating teams are discussing a replacement for the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) that expires in December. Talks will address stronger verification procedures and might also tackle the issue of reducing both deployed warheads and stockpiles held in reserve. […]