China

Below is a little clip allegedly from the Chinese newspaper Southern Metropolis Daily of some precious little schoolchildren. In the clip, a number of them tell us what they want to be when they grow up (I think I wanted to be a baseball…

In the latest move toward China’s long-term strategy of internationalising its currency, the Chinese Ministry of Finance announced today it will issue government bonds valued at 6 billion yuan in Hong Kong. The last article I wrote on…

According to an account published in the Daily Telegraph by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, the Chinese government is quite anxious about money printing in the United States and the effect this printing could have on China’s dollar denominated…

I want to highlight the good work of the BBC again. The last time I featured one of the BBC documentaries, it was about (conspicuous) consumption in China and the push to get Chinese citizens to spend more in order to support the economy. …

Nouriel Roubini is the most prominent economist to warn that a double-dip recession would be a distinct possibility if economic policy-makers return to policy normalization too quickly.  Now, Stephen Roach, head of Morgan Stanley Asia,…

Chinese vice-premier Wang Qishan has been appointed to lead a taskforce to make the renminbi the currency of choice for trade settlements, especially with regional trading partners. HSBC economist Qu Hongbin believes this latest salvo in…

The Chinese are getting serious about addressing overcapacity that has developed in industry, according to statements released by the state press. This should be seen as a positive development given concerns about a bubble in property and…

The conventional wisdom is that the US is beholden to foreign agents as they hold much of the US government debt.  In this view, if these agents sell their securities, interest rates in America should increase as demand for US public debt…

Many economic prognosticators believe Chinese consumption growth is key to a global economic recovery.  The US consumer, who had been the buyer of first and last resort during the bubble years, is tapped out and indebted.  The new engine of…

The US is not the only place where a double dip downturn is to be feared.  China has its own economic imbalances to deal with.  Too much money is being thrown at the problem creating malinvestment and a bubble economy, shares…