November 12, 2004
Capital FlowsThere is a growing sense that the G-7 no longer is the right grouping for discussing today’s major international macroeconomic issues. It is hard to see, for example, how you can discuss "global reb…
November 6, 2004
Some facts: 1) In 2003, Japan increased its reserves by $200 billion, emerging Asia by $245 billion. The world as whole increased its reserves by $500 billion, so Asia accounted for most of the worl…
November 30, 2004
Emerging MarketsThat does not necessarily mean the Turkish lira is cheap. Right now, given Turkey’s almost US scale current account deficit (close to 5% of GDP), the lira probably is a bit overvalued. Turkey is go…
December 29, 2004
Daniel Gross’s article on the currency preferences of the world’s underworld is too good not to link to. It seems like the world’s drug lords are less willing than the People’s Bank of China to fina…
February 1, 2005
EconomicsPlease pick Kassebaum-Baker rather than Brownback. Kassebaum is sort of like the Christine Todd Whitman of Kansas politics; Brownback is more the Rick Santorum. I suspect that Brownback won’t get t…
May 12, 2005
United StatesThe market seems to have concluded that there is no need to put any pressure on the US to reduce its large external deficits. The dollar is up, at least against the euro. So is the renminbi for th…
September 5, 2005
EconomicsThey truly are of fundamental importance to the US economy - particularly the agricultural economy of the Midwest. George Friedman of Statfor asks a good question? How effectively can a port functi…
October 6, 2005
EconomicsIt seems that George Friedman of Stratfor is right: it is hard to operate a port without a city. The Port of New Orleans is open, but hardly operating at full capacity. From the New York Times: Mo…
May 6, 2006
United StatesThat, according to George Packer, is the Bush Administration’s current strategy for Iraq:“As a strategy, this amounts to muddling through the rest of the Bush Presidency, without being forced to admi…
July 19, 2006
ChinaThat was yesterday’s headline. Or, given the time differences, perhaps the headline from two days ago. Chinese second quarter growth picked up to 11% plus. The only real surprise here was that the…