Markets

It is too easy to think China’s economy is in a downward spiral, given recent headlines in the US press, from “China’s Middle-Class Dreams in Peril” to “Is China Really Collapsing?” The world has been awash with such pessimism. In...

In 2015, the value of housing assets owned by households in Singapore at the aggregate level was 55% of their net worth. Ninety percent of Singapore households owned their homes, meaning that almost all households had wealth saved in housing,...

Does Japan’s accession to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement mean that the Abe government has set a course for agricultural reform? The short answer is no — for several reasons. First, despite expectations that the TPP will encourage structural reform...

With its long history of feudal oppression, industrial workhouses, and dire slums, England is no stranger to deprivation. Even today, we are all too familiar with phenomena like “beds in sheds,” soaring food bank use and fuel poverty. Therefore, it...

Canada's national election is Monday.  The latest opinion polls show a virtual dead heat between the governing Conservatives and Liberals. Two main issues dominate.  The first is the economy.  Canada is struggling.  Although the contraction period is over, growth is...

Japan is moving toward its largest privatization in two decades.  It is selling Japan Post.  It will consist of a holding company, a bank, and an insurance company.  It will likely raise the equivalent of $10-$12 bln.  There will be...

Sometimes boring debates are important. Mind numbing detail gets in the way of good policy. Therefore, it is with an obscure feature of credit cards known as “interchange fees.” Currently, these fees are both highly regulated, and inappropriately regulated by...

Positive momentum for EM assets looks to extend its moves from last week.  Buoying EM sentiment is gains in developed markets equity indices, the weaker dollar more broadly, and gains in the commodity space.  Regarding the latter, we note that...

When its GDP per capita hit almost US$7500 in 2014, China entered the middle-income stage of economic development. Relatively few countries that have made middle income status in the past three or four decades have graduated to high-income status, or...

Rising income and wealth inequality (measured by the Gini coefficient) have marked the last three decades of China’s remarkable economic transition from a centrally planned economy to an increasingly market-oriented one. When analysing the causes of China’s inequality, researchers frequently...

After a troublesome August and most of September, risk appetites were rekindled beginning in late September.  Aiding this are ideas that the period of extremely accommodative monetary policy by the major central banks will persist longer than previously anticipated.  This...

Recently, world leaders gathered in New York to commit to the new sustainable development goals. For the first time, a specifically urban goal is among the 17 goals to reach by 2030. Recently, world leaders gathered in New York to...

1) The Brazilian central bank had a record monthly loss on its FX swap operations in September, 2) Also in Brazil, the impeachment process got a step closer, 3) Indonesia cuts energy prices and electricity tariffs for the industrial sector,...

Japan’s new security laws, passed on 19 September, allow for limited forms of collective self-defence, have been described as a ‘move away from pacifism’, the opening of a ‘Pandora’s box’ and the ‘unsheathing of a new Japanese sword’. But considering...

On 7 July 2015, Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong met US President Barack Obama at the Oval Office, marking a historic milestone in advancing US–Vietnam relations. However, the trip was largely symbolic as Trong returned...