trade

The heads of state of the world's twenty largest economies are set to meet in Seoul, South Korea to discuss the global economy. The so-called currency war will be of particular interest during this session because of an escalation in…

by Michael Pettis In the debate about global trade imbalances, we often hear it said that because Americans produce nothing that China exports to the US, any move to restrict Chinese imports to the US would have no employment effect on…

by Phillippe Legrain While the debate over global imbalances often focuses on China, this column argues that the biggest threat to the world economy comes from the other side of the seesaw – the US. Countless column inches are devoted…

This was my latest media appearance from last Friday. I spoke to Howard Green about the G-20 summit in Seoul with David Weidner of Market Watch. You can see some of my pre-meeting comments here. While I thought US Treasury Secretary…

by Michael Pettis The seemingly imminent and inexorable rise of the renminbi as a major, even dominant, reserve and trading currency, has been almost as widely heralded as the equivalent rise of the Japanese yen just twenty years ago. Even…

Given the push toward austerity, I want to make a few remarks about the intersection of full employment with trade and exchange rates. It all begins with the British austerity budget. In regards to that budget, recently presented by the…

This graph comes via the Council on Foreign Relations (hat tip James Fallows).   The Chinese were implementing a gradual revaluation before the credit crisis. They stopped revaluing their currency versus the USD in 2008. And…

by Win Thin US Treasury Secretary Geithner broke down the world’s currencies into three groups:  1) currencies that are undervalued “by any measure”, 2) EM countries that have flexible currencies under what could be called a “dirty…

by Win Thin Brazil central bank starts its two day meeting Tuesday, and market is looking for rates to be kept steady at 10.75%.  Though rates are expected to remain steady through 2010, market is looking for tightening to resume next…

Opinion seems nearly universal that what we are currently experiencing is not the typical business cycle with which we are familiar. Besides being the end of a long speculative bubble, and the magnitudes involved, the significance of what…