Economics

While Asian equity markets extended yesterday's rally, a consolidative tone has emerged elsewhere.  This translates into heavier equities in Europe, including US shares that trade there, lower core bond yields, softer oil, and a dollar that has seen some of...

Southeast Asia looks set to usher in a new era of cooperation and stability following the ASEAN Foreign Ministers meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in early August. But significant challenges to regional integration remain and the risk is that ambitious...

The global capital markets are staging a convincing recovery.   The strong sustained gains in US equities yesterday has fueled continued recovery in Asia and Europe.  The strong rally of the Shanghai Composite in the last hour of domestic trading looked...

As the Fed is paving way for the first rate hike in a decade, the world economy prepares for the greatest shift of capital flows in half a decade. Recent market turmoil in the U.S. and China heralds the transition....

Growing consumer confidence in the United States was not enough to offset fears that the stock market is overvalued.  Consumer confidence rose to 101.5, a tremendous rise from the prior reading of 90.9, according to The Conference Board. Growing consumer...

The inability of the US stock market to sustain gains following the Chinese rate cut has left the market unsettled.  Similarly, despite early gains, Chinese stocks finished lower, with the losing streak extended into a fifth session.  Many Asian markets...

North American markets did not close well yesterday, and the Nikkei and Shanghai Composite sold off. North American markets did not close well yesterday, and the Nikkei and Shanghai Composite sold off. However, the magnitude of yesterday's moves sapped the...

The world’s governments are preparing to finalise the Sustainable Development Goals at the United Nations in September 2015. It is set to be a major international event, and the goals will be ushered in with tremendous fanfare; they are widely...

The global meltdown in stocks and commodities has continued.  China failed to stem the tide by cutting reserve requirements (or interest rates) as many had expected.  US 10-year yield had fallen below the 2.0% threshold but is back above it...

China's Premier Zhou Enlai was asked in 1972 about the political consequence of the French Revolution, and he famously quipped it was too early to say. Even if, as historians recognize, Zhou was referring to the unrest in 1968 rather...

Many have correctly objected to the potted history depicted in the front end of the Abe statement. But it seems that Abe was licensed in a sense by the report his expert advisory council issued on 6 August. Would they...

The Economist posted this Great Graphic in June but it is arguably even more relevant today.   It shows world growth broken down into four contributors, China, the US, India and ROW (rest of the world).  Europe fits into this catch-all...

Investment in human capital through education, partly by the government, as a precondition for sustainable growth, is almost a universal thought. For Asian countries that can no longer rely on factor accumulation to underpin their continued economic development, improving the...

Conditioning has trained us to be skeptical when someone says this time is different.  It often means to justify some excess.  However, we still need to be sensitive to changing circumstances and relationships.  There are three ways that this monetary...

The US dollar is trading higher against the dollar-bloc, encouraged by the continued decline in commodity prices and energy.  Disappointment with retail sales when petrol is included pushed sterling lower.  The greenback is making new highs against several emerging market...