Beyond U.S. tariffs, the deeper economic drag in China is domestic: weak demand, a deflationary price war, debt laden local governments mortgaging assets, and collapsing trust between private business and the state.
Tag: debt
Lavish dinners and alcohol-fueled networking among China’s civil servants face strict new limits, as Beijing imposes austerity measures to curb rising public debt — leaving the catering sector reeling.
Poland is the EU country that is most afraid of adopting the euro. But why are Poles so afraid, and what economic prospects could help them change their mind?
Any future conflict with Israel will not resemble the 20th-century wars — those highly controlled, limited conflicts that lasted only days or weeks. Wars then followed rules of engagement because they were overseen by the two superpowers of the Cold War.
Luigi Mangione, accused of murdering Brian Thompson, the CEO of the health insurance company UnitedHealthcare, has become a folk hero for Americans across different political ideologies. That’s because the nation has a broken capitalistic healthcare system.
Many young Vietnamese pay huge sums to get a training position in Germany. Only very few of them have any idea what they are getting themselves into. It’s a troubling twist to the eternal struggles of the immigrant journey.
Lehman Brothers, a global financial services firm, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on this day in 2008. This event was significant in the 2008 financial crisis and had far-reaching implications for the global economy and financial markets. What is Chapter 11 bankruptcy? Chapter 11 bankruptcy is a legal process in the United States that allows […]
The BRICS economies’ inclusion of new members like Iran may not make business sense, but it fits with the Sino-Russian strategy of drawing states of the Global South into their orbit in open confrontation with the U.S. and the rest of the West.
Both Pakistan’s and Sri Lanka’s leaders have resigned recently. Their fates should be a reminder to politicians in Asia and around the world: good economics might not be enough to get re-elected but bad economic decisions can hasten your fall.
A default would be one of the clearest signals that the sanctions are having their intended effect on the Russian economy. But its impact on Russia’s ability to wage war in Ukraine may be another story.
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China’s Loose Credit Gambit
While other major economies are taking steps to tighten credit, China is acting to cheapen it, in order to revive its economic activity and help big firms repay their debts. But will it fuel global inflation, or worse, stagflation?
The pandemic has prompted financial authorities to take a more relaxed approach to debts. For Latin America, overspending in response to the crisis may take them back to the poverty pits of the past.
Many people have had to tighten their purse strings in recent years. But that’s only part of what’s fueling frustrations in the region.
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Africa Awakens From Its China Naivety
The letter bearing the reference “MC/19/3” represents a novelty in Chinese-African relations. Kabineh Kallon, Sierra Leone’s Minister for Transport and Aviation, explains in sober tones that, after careful consideration, no new airport in the capital city of Freetown will be built. China had promised a loan and construction works worth $318 million. But Freetown already […]
Egypt’s Finance Minister says the country is actually benefiting from the Turkish crisis, but so-called ‘hot money’ can burn long-term prospects.
-Analysis- BUENOS AIRES — Argentines are surprised when they hear Europeans are worried the dollar is becoming cheaper. But there’s reason for it. Cheaper dollars mean that foreign products will flood the old continent, which, of course, is good for importers. In Argentina, most people believe that a strong peso is better than a weak […]
PARIS — What if the very different Chinese approach on debt held the key to a solution for the crisis of public finances in the West. In Europe and North America, the notion of a contract holds a central role: Whoever borrows money has to pay back, no matters the circumstances. Chinese people instead tend […]
PARIS — Every day, tourists in the Louvre crowd around the Venus de Milo. The two-meter high armless marble lady is one of the museum’s most renowned pieces of art. But the statue, recovered by a farmer on the Greek island of Milos in 1820, might have to go home soon. The statue of Venus, […]
ELEFSINA — Greece must repay 7 billion euros of debt by July. But, as has been the case since 2011, the country will not be able to honor its debt without first receiving the credit promised by the International Monetary Fund and the members of the eurozone in July 2015 (86 billion euros). Athens’ creditors […]
LANZHOU NEW AREA This city is supposed to be the diamond’s on China’s Silk Road Economic Belt a new metropolis carved out of the mountains in the country’s arid northwest. But it is shaping up to be fool’s gold, a ghost city in the making. Lanzhou New Area, in Gansu province, embodies China’s twin dreams of catapulting its poorer western regions into the economic mainstream through an orgy of infrastructure spending and cementing its place at the heart of Asia through a revival of the ancient Silk Road. Hundreds of hills on the dry, sandy Loess Plateau were flattened by […]
VANCOUVER — James Hankle, a software engineer in his 50s sporting bluejeans and a Green Party T-shirt, is explaining his fix for Vancouver’s runaway property prices when he’s interrupted by an eavesdropping passer-by: “Stop allowing people from China to buy our houses and leave them vacant,” she says and walks away. Despite British Columbia’s aversion to pipelines and affection for pot, housing affordability has pushed both aside as the No. 1 issue raised by area residents in the run-up to Canada’s election this month. It’s not completely surprising given that Vancouver has become North America’s most expensive city. Surging purchase […]
Brazilian governments again are guilty of spending too much when exports and revenues were booming. A view from neighboring Argentina, where bad economics is endemic.
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Extra! Syriza’s Second Chance
“Second Chance for Syriza,” reads the front page of Greek financial daily Naftermporiki on Monday, following the election that returns the leftist party’s leader Alexis Tsipras as prime minister. With just over 35% of the vote, Syriza came out on top, leaving center-right New Democracy behind at 28%. But Tsipras’ victory is less resounding than […]
PARIS — The Eurozone is going through the most serious crisis of its short history. It will emerge from it either stronger — but this requires exceptional leadership from European leaders who, so far, have shown none — or deeply weakened. If the latter is the case, we will look back in history and say […]
Ethnos, June 2, 2015 “Dramatic night in Berlin & Athens,” reads the front page of Athens-based newspaper Ethnos“ Tuesday edition, as the heads of IMF and ECB unexpectedly joined late-night talks on the Greek debt crisis in Berlin. French President Francois Hollande and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who were scheduled to meet German Chancellor […]
The Greek Prime Minister’s ultimatum to Eurozone partners and other negotiators as the debt crisis reaches a critical hour. The full Le Monde editorial in English.
ARMENIA REMEMBERS Ceremonies are being held in the Armenian capital of Yerevan in remembrance of the Armenian genocide by Ottoman Turks, which began 100 years ago today. “I am grateful to all those who are here to once again confirm your commitment to human values, to say that nothing is forgotten, that after 100 years […]
SAUDI ARABIA CALLS HALT TO YEMEN STRIKES, THEN STRIKES AGAIN Hopes that the Saudi-led coalition of Sunni Arab countries was ending its “Decisive Storm” campaign in Yemen were short-lived after reports of more airstrikes against Houthi Shia rebels emerged Wednesday morning, less than a day after Riyadh had indicated a halt to attacks. A local […]
H Efimerida ton Sintakton, April 9, 2015 Before Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow Wednesday, European commentators warned that Greece could become Russia’s “Trojan horse” against Brussels. But Greek newspaper H Efimerida ton Sintakton instead described the “revival of Greek-Russian relations” as a “historic opportunity for the two […]
With scant help common from Frankfurt, a group of French intellectuals is calling for online donations to help the Greek people. Desperate times indeed.
China’s investments and loans in Latin America ensure the flow of raw matericals to China and products back to the American continent. The lender has the long view in this formula.
-OpEd- MUNICH — Talk to a Greek person about the difficult situation their country faces and you’re likely to hear some pretty astounding things. Some argue, for example, that the financial collapse came at the right moment, that without it Greece wouldn’t have been pressured into the reforms needed to halt its downward spiral. But […]
Japan has slipped into recession, the ultimate mark of failure of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ambitious but misguided efforts to turn around the nation’s economy.
In September 2011, in Thessaloniki, Greece, Apostolos Polyzonis set himself on fire outside his bank, which had refused to ease his debt payments. He survived, and so did his anger.
BUENOS AIRES — Facing the risk of billions of dollars of debt claims, the Argentine government is looking to maximize its revenues — whichever way it can. Argentina’s tax agency AFIP has decided to start keeping an electronic tab of all the country’s livestock beginning next year, tracking their movements and making sure their owners […]
The comparisons to the present are striking: a 1830s Swiss banker who helped launch the newly formed nation of Greece on the back of credit it could never pay back.
Six months from kickoff, two economic assessments, pro and con, as the world’s most popular sporting event lands in the ‘B’ of BRICS.
As the Brazil’s “commodities supercycle” grinds to a halt, Dilma Rousseff’s economic policy has failed to find a new path. Is World Cup excitement enough to avoid a national bust?
BEIJING — The Chinese capital likes to dazzle visitors with the biggest and best projects in the world. Consider, for example, the Olympic Park built for the 2008 games. It is spread over nearly 12 square kilometers, intersected by a canal that, seen from above, resembles a dragon. The park is an exhibition of the […]
One writer outlines what German Chancellor Angela Merkel is doing right; and sees potential deep flaws in the economic policies of Japan’s Shinzo Abe.