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”.
Dániel Stemler | According to the latest report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), last year was a record year for renewables as the “global renewable energy generation capacity increased by 161 gigawatts (GW) in 2016”.
Ian McCredie | President Trump told the House GOP conference just before the fateful health care debacle that if they did not pass the bill: “I honestly think many of you will lose your seats in 2018.” This was the day after the heads of both the FBI and the NSA publicly exposed Trump as a liar for accusing former President Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower in the run-up to last year’s presidential election.
Monetary and fiscal stimulus policies have failed to reactivate consumer confidence in Japan and it declined into a light, but cronic deflation of 0.3% in 2016.
James Alexander | Scott Sumner wrote an interesting blog post on his vision of macro. It is a useful way of seeing where Scott stands today. However, we were puzzled. Should unemployment really be the centerpiece variable or should it be stable nominal spending growth at an appropriate level?
Xu Bin and Zhou Dongsheng via Caixin | Comparing this year’s results of the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) Business in China Survey with those from the last seven years shows what Chinese and foreign executives who are doing business in China think about issues such as overcapacity, the effectiveness of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, and the government’s efforts at economic reform.
Trump’s attempt to get rid of the Obamacare health scheme has turned into a complete fiasco, and a similar fate might await his plans to revamp public expenditure. Trump’s own party mates share his will to reduce corporation tax, but have expressed deep concern about huge deficits. So much of the presidential agenda might end up in the dustbin.
Despite Republicans still had no deal on their health care bill to repeal Obamacare on Wednesday’s midnight, the House of Representatives must vote later today to “repeal and replace” the law. Much to the disappointment of many observers, the Trump administration has given priority to this topic over tax cuts and infrastructure spending.