Chinese President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign has highlighted the seriousness of China’s official malfeasance. The outcome will shape a new era of China’s politics, economy and foreign policy.
‘Corruption’ covers disparate phenomena. It may mean graft, taking a tip for doing your job, or it may mean corruption in the stricter sense, taking money in return for undermining the national interest — which is much more costly.
The big question these days is when the Federal Reserve will finally raise its target interest rate for the first time in almost a decade. Its monetary policy committee is meeting this week to decide whether to do just that.
Unfortunately, this is the wrong question. Whether the Fed moves this week or next month will make little difference over time. If it takes too small a step now – or none at all – it can take a bigger step later.
Once again, EM assets are starting the week of on a soft note.
Singapore’s People’s Action Party (PAP) is riding high in the saddle again. After a decade of slightly sagging fortunes, in which the long-ruling party’s share of the national vote slumped from over 75 percent in 2001 to barely 60 percent in 2011, the PAP rebounded mightily in the election on 11 September, snaring nearly 70 percent of votes cast. This only secured the PAP one additional seat in parliament, since extreme malapportionment and gerrymandering had already translated its 60 percent share of the votes, absurdly, into over 93 percent of all seats.
The average daily turnover in the foreign exchange market is over $5 trillion a day. Many traders and analysts put considerable weight on market positioning. However, it proves very elusive.
The latest economic figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) have fuelled the debate on the future of the Australian economy and prompted many to ask, “Will Australia go into a recession?”
This question is legitimate, but off the mark. In fact, the data tells us that we should not be worried about going into recession.
What we should worry about instead is how to get out of the recession. Because, like it or not, the recession is already here and the sooner we acknowledge the problem, the sooner we can start the recovery.
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has achieved remarkable economic growth, but there are a number of serious imbalances between coastal and inland regions, and between urban and rural areas. The government wants to help bridge this gap by developing inclusive finance tools.
As it tussles with multiple crises of political legitimacy and governance, Malaysia has reached a decisive point in its more than half-century history as an independent nation. What started as a shocking but not exceptional scandal has turned into a political crisis of unprecedented proportions. The Bersih 4 protests on 29–30 August in Kuala Lumpur underlined this, attended by an estimated 250,000 yellow-T-shirted Malaysians.
Key indicators of falling aggregate demand throughout the United States rang alarm bells with investors, who sold stocks off in early morning trading.
Wholesale prices in the U.S. saw little change, with lower fuel costs dragging total producer prices lower. Producer prices stagnated in August after showing a 0.2% advance in July. Despite the worrying indication of a deflationary trap stirring, the results were better than expected. Analysts had expected a 0.1% decline in prices.
In South Korea 410,000 young people in their 20s are looking for work and unemployed. This is up from 330,000 in 2013 and is a 15-year high. But this deepening societal crisis should come as little surprise.
