Sovereign risk in Turkey was once talked about in the same breath as Brazil’s. Not so anymore. One is going hat in hand to the IMF, likely to get $45 billion in the coming weeks; the other is largely self-financing. What went wrong in Turkey? Always keep your eye on the current account deficit, folks, even when […]
Embedded video from CNN Video Fareed Zakaria interviewed Russian President Dmitry Medvedev about his relationship (or rivalry) with Vladimir Putin, Russia’s ties with the United States, Iran’s nuclear program, politics and the economy. Recently, Medvedev penned a piece arguing that “an inefficient economy, semi-Soviet social sphere, fragile democracy, negative demographic trends, and unstable Caucasus represent […]
An update on a post I did last week on the Obama administration’s swing toward trade protectionism with its action against Chinese tires: enclosed is this nicely written NYTimes editorial…not an Op-ed, an editorial. The Times editorial board understands economics. American workers in the tire industry, many represented by the United Steelworkers Union, may well lose their jobs […]
During the Great Depression, international trade contracted by a third, as countries around the world erected barriers to trade, aggravating a sharp decline in output already under way and throwing millions out of work. Thus far, in the Great Recession of 2008-09, the end of which some observers may have called too soon, the major powers have avoided […]
Wu Bangguo, the head of China’s Congress, is enjoying a warm welcome in Washington. He met with President Obama, calling for closer economic ties, and attended a dinner on Thursday evening hosted in his honor. Secretary of State Clinton said, as she has done several times before, that “building a strong relationship with China is […]
Washington said that it would accept Tehran’s offer of comprehensive talks, even though Iran continues to refuse to negotiate over its nuclear program. The chess move – a strategy designed to force Iran to talk seriously or encourage rising powers to place greater pressure on Tehran to curb its hostile actions – was announced as […]
40,000. There are now over 40,000 Japanese over the age of 100. The number is staggering and an impressive display of the high level of public health, but it also points to Japan’s aging and shrinking population and a looming demographic crisis. Graphic from Reuters. Hat tip from FP Passport.
Nilson Teixeira ([email protected]) and his team at CreditSuisse Brazil, one of the formidable analytical teams among Brazil’s brokerage firms, today published a comprehensive 170 page guide to the Brazilian economy. Timely, given that the world’s eighth largest economy is now one to be watched, invested in, and profited from. CSFB says this guide is good for […]
It wasn’t Paul Kennedy who first said that great powers who over-extend themselves — either externally or internally — fast-forward the date of their decline, but he wrote about imperial over-extension and decline so convincingly in a best-selling book in the late 80’s. Political Scientist Robert Gilpin in War and Change in World Politics argued […]
I discussed Mexico’s fiscal woes and compared them to Brazil’s in a previous post. Today, financial market analysts reacted positively to the Mexican government’s fiscal plan, set to limit the widening of the federal deficit in 2010. Like Barack Obama’s unwillingness to confront Congress on the cap-and-trade carbon emissions plan or health care reform, Felipe Calderon’s government once again skirted the […]
Brazil reportedly agreed to pay billions of dollars for 36 French fighter jets. The purchase follows the deal between France and Brazil in December to jointly build five submarines and France is also selling 50 military helicopters to Latin America’s rising power. The moves will help Brazil protect its borders and defend its valuable natural […]
Mexico still remains two notches above Brazil due to sticky credit ratings and the inability of the rating agencies to take dramatic action. Such dramatic rating action would suggest that rating agency analysts have been wrong for some time.
It was certainly a dramatic and convincing victory, but how much will it really change Japan? In the recent election, the opposition Democratic Party of Japan routed the Liberal Democratic Party, who had been in practically uninterrupted control for the past half century. The landslide triumph is a historic break from the past, but is […]
Size. Strength. Potential. Neighbors. The world’s two fastest rising powers – China and India – are often considered strategic rivals, not close friends. Sure, Beijing and Delhi often sing the same tune in international powwows, but their differences are real and could become more pronounced. Beijing and Delhi largely agree on climate change, trade and […]
Should America be a great power? If so, can the United States remain a great power? Christian Brose, senior editor at Foreign Policy, and Rachel Kleinfeld, president of the Truman National Security Project, debate the future of the world’s hegemon and rising heavyweights on bloggingheads.tv. Christian Brose argues that “the greatest advantage that the United […]