China into the Arctic
MASSACHUSETTS | By Richard N. Cooper via Caixin | As ice cover yields to global warming, many countries are eying a range of economic benefits, but they may be harder to attain than imagined.
MASSACHUSETTS | By Richard N. Cooper via Caixin | As ice cover yields to global warming, many countries are eying a range of economic benefits, but they may be harder to attain than imagined.
By Ray Kwong | Despite the hoopla around China’s new free trade zone which opened on Sunday, details are sparse on exactly how the promise of economic liberalization will help boost the economy.
Iris Mir | During the last decade China’s food imports grew by 21% a year. The country is running out of arable land where to farm basic food like grains and cereals or where to grow its cattle. So it’s going abroad to acquire millions of hectares of land from other countries.
NEW YORK | By Daniel Altman | In economics there are few axioms and fewer laws. The science, if it can be called that, lacks the certainty of mathematics and the elegance of physics, which may be why quite a few run-of-the-mill mathematicians and physicists turn out to be excellent economists.
BEIJING | Via Caixin Magazine | Chinese SOEs, the state behemoths, use systems that make dictators of top managers, a situation that must be addressed for corruption to be rooted out. Appointed outside directors, and learning from advanced economies such as Britain, can be a solution, he magazine believes.
HAMBURG | By Dr. Beate Reszat | The BIS Triennial Central Bank Survey of foreign exchange turnover makes a fascinating read. First of all, there is the rise in turnover volume: $5.3 trillion. Per day. By comparison: World exports in 2011 (the latest available number) were about $17.8 trillion. Per annum. Second, there is the number of currencies traded which, as the following list shows, has increased markedly. The Mexican peso and Chinese renminbi are even found among the top 10 most traded currencies now.
By Ray Kwong | China’s economy went from chump to champ in 30 years, with growth rates averaging 10% over three decades. To be sure, there are major downward shifts underway, but predictions that the Chinese economy will go down in flames—whether by crash, hard landing or [your favorite term here]—is crazy. Some detractors even foresee an economic apocalypse, one in which China will repeat Japan’s “lost decade” of stagnation.
Iris Mir | China starts a new round of economic experimentation. Shanghai is set to become the new engine of growth with a China’s first Free Trade Zone (FTZ). The goal is to attract foreign investment by testing new deregulation rules that should give foreign companies greater flexibility. But urgent reforms in other areas are a must in order to transform the rise of the income of Chinese households into real purchasing power.
BEIJING | By Andy Xie via Caixin Magazine | India and China, the elephant and the dragon, are entering a new chapter, and the main question they both face is whether they will reform before a crisis or after.
BEIJING | By Andy Xie via Caixin Magazine | As the U.S. continues to normalize interest rates, emerging economies become vulnerable. Brazil and India are at the eye of the storm, but China with its huge property bubble should be wary.