trade

Marshall Auerback here. You saw Ed’s last post on China, quoting from Peter Tasker, one of the top analysts in Japan when I lived there. I take Peter’s insights very seriously. His analysis implies something a lot moreregarding currencies,…

China has sent yet another public signal that it is unhappy with the U.S. and its trade policy by prepping an investigation into alleged illegal auto subsidies by the U.S. government.  The timing of this announcement puts a spotlight…

This morning, I ran across a post by Prieur du Plessis, which linked out to a Stephen Roach interview on Charlie Rose. Roach is the head of Morgan Stanley Asia and has been a voice to listen to when trying to discern where China is headed…

Paul Krugman has noticed that trade has absolutely collapsed with this economic downturn. It is worse than the Great Depression. Question: is this aiding global re-balancing? Here are two data points from Europe today which lead to that…

Marshall Auerback here. This is a cross-post from an article I wrote at the finance site New Deal 2.0, a one-stop-shop for current news, sharp analysis and potential solutions of the country’s fiscal crisis. We’ve said it before and…

I have to admit to hyping the debate now swirling about protectionism. I believe that tariffs are not a very good solution to a trade problem as they are likely to result in retaliation and/or escalation. Moreover, they end up protecting…

I just finished reading a Financial Times article about the likely coordinated global policy solutions to emerge from the upcoming G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh.  It does not sound like there is a huge amount of consensus. Indeed, it…

Now that President Obama has signalled his willingness to punish the Chinese for dumping on tires, a whole host of other industries are likely to file their own ‘copy-cat’ complaints. Reuters says: President Barack Obama's decision to…

In 2002, the global economy was weak and equity markets around the world were at multi-year lows following the greatest equity bubble and bust in world history. Many policy makers including Alan Greenspan, chairman of the U.S. Federal…

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…