Political Economy

Below is a video of my appearance on RT International last night discussing the recent bill to authorise sanctions against the Chinese for currency manipulation. I see this bill as all about the politics and little about the economics.

US national elections are 13 months away and not coincidentally, the Congress is looking at a new measures to encourage China to re-value the yuan. While there is little doubt that the yuan in under-valued, though reasonable people may…

In an interview from late September, Zulauf tells James Turk that he is very much a eurosceptic. The external imbalances in the euro zone make the euro an untenable currency union. Like David Blanchflower, Zulauf remarks how markets are…

The “solution” currently on offer – i.e. the talk surrounding the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) now includes suggestions of ECB backing. This makes eminent sense. Let’s be honest: the EFSF is a political fig-leaf. If 440…

Professor Professor Xiang Songzuo from the Centre for International Monetary Research at Renmin University in Beijing told the BBC yesterday there would definitely be retaliation if the US moves to sanctions against China. If this scenario…

The Bloomberg interview with David Blanchflower of Dartmouth College last week captures the essence of the European sovereign debt crisis. The essence of what Dr. Blanchflower says is this: European policymakers are leading from the rear…

This video clip has been making the rounds so I thought I should post it (without commentary). The line most people have focused on is the one I quoted in the post title. Feel free to comment.

Most of the writers whose work appear on this blog have long warned that the extend and pretend strategy in Europe would fail. Now, it seems that Europe is moving to a hard restructuring for Greece and recapitalisation for bank creditors.…

Some of the dominant policy issues of today – immigration, energy, the emergence of China – have their analogues in the great Industrial Revolution. The key government policies that laid the foundation for the Industrial Revolution in…

This column comments on Joe Nocera’s September 23, 2011 column entitled: The Phony Solyndra Scandal. Nocera’s column compares the statements of Solyndra’s controlling managers to Dick Fuld’s statements to the public about Lehman’s…