Israel has a comparative advantage in medical care and specifically in treating trauma victims, which comes not only from its advanced human capital, especially in technology and health care, but also from vast experience treating victims of terror and war. Read the NYTimes article published yesterday on the subject. Israel has been treating Haiti’s earthquake victims […]
…even under Barack Obama. Nice piece in the FT on European angst about American power, and the continent’s inability as yet to offer a unified foreign policy with punch. Ideally, EU foreign and defense policies could serve as a counterweight to the G-2, read: China and the U.S. The latest flare-up of this angst involved a […]
The New York Times published an editorial yesterday analyzing the Republican win in Massachusetts this week and offering advice to President Obama. I’m not sure why the “gray lady” of American journalism is joining the chorus in this country calling for populist policies as a result of the Massachusetts election — sticking it to the banks […]
Good friends (Uribe and Obama) vs. Best friends (Uribe and Bush)… Sources: zimbio.com, AP. I have long argued that the Democrats have gotten it wrong on Colombia, by parroting the misinformation about this country and its President, Alvaro Uribe, circulated by US labor unions intent on stopping a free trade agreement between two staunch allies. This is […]
Even sound actions can have negative consequences. That is why in times of crisis, policy makers must remain vigilant. Easing monetary and credit policies last year and keeping them loose made sense. In an effort to avoid the mistakes of the Great Depression, when governments tightened both monetary and fiscal policies, policy makers this time around gave the wounded private sector what it […]
Planet Earth’s critical issue this decade will be whether American power will erode — and if so, what the implications will be for the liberal world order we erected after WWII. The Obama administration’s fiscal stimulus package cum bank bailout, building on the Paulson-Bush-Geithner-Bernanke efforts of 2008 and the unprecedented coordination of economic policy globally, constituted a brilliant, […]
China has a dual economy. There is the modern coastal economy oriented for export that has exploited China’s comparative advantage in labor-intensive manufacturing to generate US$2 trillion in fx reserves; and, there’s the rest — the government-directed economy of bank lending, state-owned enterprises, and massive, massive investment in real estate, roads and other infrastructure. With […]
Overview: 2009 was the year of rising powers. Everyone – experts, analysts, leaders, and the media – is talking about the dawn of a new world order as the global balance of power begins to reflect the economic rise of China, India, Brazil, and others. Several rising powers proved surprisingly resilient during the financial crisis […]
“The formation of the G20 group of world leaders is likely to be the most lasting institutional consequence of the global financial meltdown of 2008,” writes Gideon Rachman, a columnist for the Financial Times, in the Economist’s The World in 2010. Rachman outlines the G’s jostling for preeminence – from the G2 to the G77 […]
Featuring analysis and commentary by Eswar Prasad of the Brookings Institution and Derek Scissors of the Heritage Foundation, CNN provides a video introduction to the BRIC – Brazil, Russia, India and China – countries. Kitty Pilgrim outlines the impact of the countries representing 40 percent of the world’s population and 25 percent of the landmass, […]
A central challenge of our times: America, Europe, and countries the world over will have to figure out a way to staunch the hemorraging red ink we are currently sustaining. As a result of fiscal stimulus packages and bank bailouts, in addition to the standard generous provision of guns and butter, we will be talking a […]
The Economist this week (Nov. 14-20) featured a mediocre special report on Brazil. Its message: Brazil is a good investment. So, you finally noticed! Better to have invested in late 2002, when Brazilian assets were selling at prices implying a sovereign default (which didn’t happen). Some good points were made though, notably how this is […]
Presidents Hu and Obama finished their summit in Beijing and issued a joint statement. Below, Christiaan Tuntono of CSFB notes that President Obama didn’t get a commitment from China to revalue the RMB against the U.S. dollar, which would effectively increase Chinese demand for U.S. exports. As RMB undervaluation is a key focus of such […]
President Obama did a good job this week in China. Goodwill is a valuable intangible in politics, and he engendered some on his Asian trip. Still, the gloss is off the family car — the superpower with hat in hand is an oxymoron. The spectacle of the United States having to go to Beijing to […]
Not so fast. President Medvedev has resounded the main themes of reform for some time now, without his government (or, rather, Putin’s) following through. See a NYTimes article from yesterday on President Medvedev’s annual address to the Russian nation, as well as a report on the matter below in a CSFB Emerging Markets report. Reducing Russia’s humiliating […]