Richard N. Cooper via Caixin | Shortly after the U.S. presidential election, and well before the Jan. 20 inauguration, I speculated about the impact on China if then-President-elect Donald Trump translated his campaign slogans (and tweets) into policy.
So-called ‘soft’ data, such as strong sentiment indicators and survey levels for the US economy, have raised the debate whether the real economic indicators ahead – the so-called ‘hard’ data – will be able to fulfil the expectations created, or whether they will instead disappoint and lead to market unrest.
By Zhang Yiqing via Caixin | Against the backdrop of the world’s excess liquidity, the Belt and Road initiative offers infrastructure construction opportunities that provide investment returns while also generating economic value and social benefits.
Capitalism – or in fact any economy, if an alternative exists – should grow constantly, although not necessarily in quantity. It’s not so much about making a larger amount of exactly the same products and services, but about innovating and producing new goods and services at a lower cost.
Enric Fernández (Caixabank) | The forecasts of the vast majority of analysts and international organisations point to an acceleration of global GDP growth in 2017. At CaixaBank Research we are predicting a growth rate in real terms of 3.4%, three tenths of a percentage point above last year. The improvement will be extensive for all the advanced economies (which we expect to grow 2%) as well as for the emerging markets (+4.5%)
Steve Keller via Atlantic Sentinel | Last week, I wrote about Donald Trump’s soft support among Republicans. Democrats already strongly disapprove of his bigotry, buffoonery and right-wing ideology. In order to dip down to Nixonian or Bush ’43 levels — high 20s, low 30s — he will have to lose support from conservatives and Republican-leaning independents.
There are some who consider it is the best safe-haven asset there is, which would never lose value even if the world went bankrupt. We are talking about gold and its infinite qualities, which have made it the most coveted precious metal. But have you ever asked yourself why gold is really so valuable?
By Fang Xiangliang and Coco Feng via Caixin | In 1999, Luo Lin quit his secure job at China National Petroleum Co. (CNPC) and founded his own private firm providing services to the massive state-owned oil giant. Back then he couldn’t have foreseen the dramatic ups and downs that would characterize the 25-year transition that such smaller oilfield service companies have experienced.
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said the primary reason for raising interest rates in March was a simple one: the central bank is confident in a steadily improving economy. The economy, however, has actually been deteriorating somewhat for Fed’s rate hikes.
In the US and other parts of the world a phenomenon has occurred which partly explains the differences in income: the different levels of success which different companies have. But it seems that companies were more uniform in the past. The salary differential happened within a company and could be translated into expectations of promotion or a better job like in the age of the “American dream”.