Criticizing the conventional wisdom about the inevitability of China’s global ascendancy and American strategic decline is a regular preoccupation for this page. Indeed, a recent post took aim at the prevailing notion, subscribed to by a wide-ranging group that includes Barack Obama and Sarah Palin, that Beijing can translate its vast holdings of dollar-denominated assets into policy […]
A central focus of this blog is handicapping the global power sweepstakes between the United States and China. And a regular theme here is the role private enterprise is playing in revitalizing U.S. strategic power – whether it’s in the resurgence of the manufacturing sector or in launching the oil and natural gas boom (here […]
Given all the fanciful prognostications about how China is poised to eat America’s lunch, it might sound odd that the country’s new leader, Xi Jinping, is sloganeering about the need for national “rejuvenation” and “revival.” He is, of course, attempting to harness patriotic sentiments in order to boost the Communist Party’s eroding legitimacy. But his […]
The reinvention of the U.S. industrial sector promises far-reaching global consequences Pushing back against the deluge of punditry about America’s strategic eclipse, my last post argued that the U.S. global position is being bolstered greatly by a revolution in domestic energy production that began to take shape in the past few years. Although it has not […]
One thing history has consistently taught us is that paradigms shift and new eras are born in a repeating cycle that’s as old as hills. One thing history has also taught us is that some shifts are far more epochal than others; some have the capacity to distort the pathway of history and others not. […]
Continuing coverage on the Rise of State-sponsored Capitalism” href=”http://globaleconomy.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2009/05/09/the-rise-of-state-sponsored-capitalism/” target=”_blank”>I’ve written about frequently here in my Global Markets blog — namely the Chinese state’s spin on capitalism. Though there were many critics early on — and still are in many quarters — who argued that China’s state-managed version of capitalism was unsustainable, it seems the long-term sustainability of so-called ‘State Capitalism‘ has been proven, and is even gathering steam in unlikely places — India, Cuba, Vietnam and the Middle-East to name a few — with great success. It’s a trend that Western financial centers should be attuned to, nor should it be dismissed as the global financial architecture continues to evolve following the global financial crisis.
Report in NY Times about the impending lay-off of over 500,000 employees was jarring in the context of our own stagnant economy. The junior Castro brother, Raúl, is following through on his previous pledges to make Cuba’s centralized, Socialist economy more efficient and to open up opportunities to its enterprising citizens. This begs the question if Cuba will replicate China’s success with its State capitalism model.