Asia & the Pacific

11 Items

Rupiah coins in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia.

Binsar Bakkara/AP

Analysis & Opinions - Global Policy

Closing the Equity Financing Gap during the COVID-19 Crisis: The Emergence of Sovereign Wealth Funds with Expiration Dates

| May 29, 2020

Juergen Braunstein and Sachin Silva argue that sovereign wealth funds may be central to governments' efforts to balance public responsibility with private interests in post-pandemic economies.

Chinese President Xi Jinping raises his glass and proposes a toast at the end of his speech during the welcome banquet, after the welcome ceremony of leaders attending the Belt and Road Forum at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, April 26, 2019.

Nicolas Asfour/Pool via REUTERS

Analysis & Opinions

Addressing China’s Global Strategy

| Apr. 09, 2019

Over the years, China has become increasingly powerful politically, diplomatically, militarily. Xi acknowledged China’s intention of reaching the top position in a number of key-sectors such as robotics, AI, electric cars, biotech and aviation. Moreover, China expanded its programs such as the Belt and Road Initiative. This strategy has been met with a strong pushback from America as well as a number of countries in South Asia, Central Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa.

Blog Post - Views on the Economy and the World

Fiscal Education for the G-7

| May 26, 2016
As the G-7 Leaders gather in Ise-Shima, Japan, on May 26-27, the still fragile global economy is on their minds.  They would like a road map to address stagnant growth. Their approach should be to talk less about currency wars and more about fiscal policy.Fiscal policy vs. monetary policyUnder the conditions that have prevailed in most major countries over the last ten years, we have reason to think that fiscal policy is a more powerful tool for affecting the level of economic activity, as compared to monetary policy.

The Non-Problem of Chinese Currency Manipulation

Analysis & Opinions - Project Syndicate

The Non-Problem of Chinese Currency Manipulation

| February 20, 2015

CAMBRIDGE – America's two political parties rarely agree, but one thing that unites them is their anger about “currency manipulation," especially by China. Perhaps spurred by the recent appreciation of the dollar and the first signs that it is eroding net exports, congressional Democrats and Republicans are once again considering legislation to counter what they view as unfair currency undervaluation. The proposed measures include countervailing duties against imports from offending countries, even though this would conflict with international trade rules.

Blog Post - Views on the Economy and the World

IMF Reform and Isolationism in Congress

| Jan. 29, 2014
A long-awaited reform of the International Monetary Fund has now been carelessly blocked by the US Congress.   This decision is just the latest in a series of self-inflicted blows since the turn of the century that have needlessly undermined the claim of the United States to global leadership.The IMF reform would have been an important step in updating the allocations of quotas among member countries.  From the negative congressional reaction, one might infer that the US was being asked either to contribute more money or to give up some voting power.

Blog Post - Views on the Economy and the World

Economists Polled On Pre-Election Economy

| Oct. 15, 2012
A survey of economists is published in the November 2012 issue of Foreign Policy.  One question was whether we thought that the US unemployment rate would dip below 8.0% before the election.   When the FPconducted the poll at the end of the summer, unemployment was 8.1-8.2%.  Now it’s 7.8%.  Only 8% of the respondents said “yes.”   (I was one.  I basically just extrapolated the trend of the last two years.)My fellow economists choose defense and agricultural subsidies as the two categories of US federal spending that they think the best to cut.

Oil palm seedlings growing in a plant nursery in Ivory Coast.

Report - United Nations

The Biofuels Market: Current Situation and Alternative Scenarios

    Author:
  • United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
| 2009

The purpose of this volume is to present possible scenarios for the biofuels industry. Each chapter describes how the sector could evolve depending on the policy and strategies that individual countries may select. However, the assumption is that individual choices may have global impacts. Each scenario therefore tries to provide insights on the global economic, energetic, environmental and trade repercussions of specific policy developments.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair listens to a student explaining the biofuel crops and research carried out at an experimental farm at Pretoria University in Pretoria, South Africa, June 1, 2007.

AP Photo

Report Chapter

Advanced Biofuels and Developing Countries: Intellectual Property Scenarios and Policy Implications

| 2009

"Chapter III analysed the commercial viability of second generation biofuels. This chapter focuses on related intellectual property rights (IPRs) aspects. Three hypothetical scenarios in the context of the intellectual property protection of second generation biofuels are developed, with each scenario representing a different level of strictness of protection. Therefore, each scenario translates into a different level of potential access to advanced biofuel technologies by developing countries."