It’s understandable to an extent. Central banks are omnipotent, central bankers therefore the nearest human equivalent of gods. That’s what we’re all taught, so if something happens somewhere to some market then we’re left to believe it was because one of the gods wanted it that way.Taking this globally, the Fed made a bunch of money in the aftermath of [...]
There is a tremendous difference between the world de-dollarizing and those living in it being de-dollared. The former is a choice, the latter a fact of existence since August of 2007 (to varying degrees). Yet, most people, especially the “experts”, talk of only the first one as if that was all there is to it.Especially when it comes to China.We [...]
Questioning the veracity of Chinese estimates (for anything) has always been something of an amateur sport. For a stat like real GDP, everyone “knows” that it is managed. In a complex world where an economic system for a billion and a half is incomprehensibly unpredictable, there’s really no other way to always hit your government’s mark (unless the Chinese are [...]
There were only two possibilities and both related to their release. Either the Communist Chinese government was going to delay them, or would just say, screw it, everyone knows they’re going to be bad so let ‘em fly. There weren’t any questions about the data itself. Sure enough, the first glimpse at China’s economy in its full virus effects was [...]
What’s going on in China? It’s a question that is on everyone’s mind. While most attention is focused on the unfolding human tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic, the potential for it to be compounded by any economic fallout makes for even more urgency. The sad truth is that China was in rough shape heading into the coronavirus. How rough, though? [...]
Always aspiring to technocratic greatness, China’s Communist Party is set up to run like clockwork. It’s supposed to go off in predestined fashion, a course programmed into the vast apparatus by highly proficient experts. It is, or is supposed to be, comforting that order and control over the complex main spheres of daily life can be managed down the detail [...]
The competition was fierce. Vying for the eventual affections of Indonesia’s traveling public, Japan and China were locked into an auction of one-upmanship. Businesses from both countries had submitted bids to build the first high speed rail line in the growing emerging market center. As a first step, there would be bullet train service between Jakarta and Bandung. Ultra-fast trains [...]
Najib Tun Razak was elected as Malaysia’s Prime Minister in early 2009. Taking office that April amid global turmoil and chaos, Najib’s first official visit was to Beijing in early June. His father, also Malaysia’s Prime Minister, had been the first among Asian nations to open formal diplomatic relations with China thirty-five years before. Celebrating the milestone might’ve been the [...]
Since December 2015, China’s powerful politburo has met nine times to discuss the economy. The Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee is a group of 25 top officials who control pretty much everything. The politburo’s smaller Standing Committee is the very top echelon of the Communist Party. Members of the politburo are given top jobs in the [...]
The word contagion is easy enough to understand. Whether the spread of disease or disaster, sometimes it is difficult if not impossible to contain. In financial terms, contagion is often thought of along the lines of 2011; Greece started it and it spread throughout the rest of Southern Europe. The euro was coming apart, and what “it” was didn’t seem [...]
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