Archive for May 2018
The damaging blind alley of US protectionism
The damaging blind alley of US protectionismThe following article deals with the costs to the US economy of protectionism. The specific case it deals with is protectionism in relation to China. However the arguments apply to all strategies based on protectionism. * * * Steve Bannon Steve Bannon, President Trump’s Chief Strategist, rightly identified the…
Read MoreChina lacks innovation? Take another look
Until recently, the big myth about China’s companies was their lack of innovation. That view is now being reassessed in a series of Western studies analyzing rapid innovation by China’s firms. Ming Zeng’s and Peter Williamson’s Dragons at Your Door, Dan Breznitz’s and Michael Murphree’s Run of the Red Queen, Vijay Govendarajan’s and Chris Trimble’s…
Read MoreWhy the economic reform succeeded in China & will fail in Russia and Eastern Europe
This article was written in April 1992 and originally published in Russian in September 1992 in Voprosy Economiki (Questions of Economics) in September 1992. The introduction to the article was written for a blog December 2008 and subtitles have been added to make the article more suitable for a website – otherwise it is unchanged. * …
Read MoreThe neo-con forces behind Trump’s Twitter attacks on China
Trump’s Twitter storm against ChinaOn 30 Jul…
Read MoreChina is right to maintain & tighten capital controls
During 2017 China has been tightening its capital controls to prevent any export of capital from the country not required for legitimate business expansion – that is China has been strongly acting against ‘capital flight’. This policy has been successful, with China’s foreign exchange reserves, already the world’s largest, rising for six months in a row – see…
Read MoreEconomic growth & human well-being – the example of China
The following article analyses in detail the relat…
Read MoreTheoretical bases of China’s “win-win” foreign policy concept
In his speech on Asia’s “Community of Common Destiny” at 2015’a Boao Forum, Chinese President Xi Jinping spelled out China’s conception of “win-win” relations in Asia and the world. This therefore provides a good opportunity to examine the fundamental bases of China’s foreign policy. It also highlights the reason for the recent failure of the United…
Read MoreWhy China won’t suffer a Western type financial crisis
Inaccurate articles sometimes appear claiming China faces a “severe debt crisis.” Factually these are easily refuted. Changyong Rhee, the IMF’s Asia and Pacific Department director, pointed out that China’s national and local government debt is only 53% of its GDP, compared to U.S. government debt which is roughly as big as GDP, or in Japan…
Read MoreThe real reason for the US South China Sea provocation
On July 12, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague issued a pre-arranged declaration supporting some Philippines claims against China in the South China Sea – despite such a declaration being clearly contrary to international law. Almost simultaneously last week the U.S. announced that it would deploy the THAAD anti-missile system in South Korea.…
Read MoreA damaging confusion in Western economics books
Economics textbooks, particularly when discussing Keynes, frequently contain an elementary economic confusion – it should be made explicit this is a confusion in the textbooks and is not stated by Keynes. A typical example may be taken as Mankiw’s Principles of Economics, but numerous other examples could be cited as the confusion is widespread.1 This…
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