Will Trump be the American Gorbachev? It’s now or never for Europe to catch up with the United States’ economy, if the European Central Bank is willing to show the way, says economist Nicolas Goetzmann.
Tag: growth
China’s real estate crisis is hitting small, unattractive cities like Shaoguan hard. This city of 3.3 million residents in the far south of the country has a stock of empty apartments that could take 10 years to sell.
The Russian economy has proven remarkably resilient to Western sanctions, a phenomenon largely driven by Russia’s expanding military-industrial complex and increased trade with India and China. One challenge remains unsolved however: a lack of young working-aged men ready for hire in the country’s industrial and white collar sectors.
How is the Chinese economy doing these days? Start by asking Louis Vuitton, whose flagship Beijing boutique boasted record sales in August.
The Mexican president’s overhaul of public life is riding roughshod over interests, including those of the poor, his own voters, and a ‘defenseless’ middle class.
Policymakers have, for the most part, learned to avoid fiscal deficits. And yet, growth numbers (with the exception of certain states) have been stagnant at best.
Will slow growth rates persist in a global dynamic of ‘secular stagnation?’ Or will the IT revolution set off new bursts of productivity?
-Open Letter- PARIS — In the weeks since France’s popular environment minister, Nicolas Hulot resigned, after expressing disappointment with President Emmanuel Macron“s environmental record, newspapers have been filled with articles and opinion pieces sounding the alarm. Those in power are told to take vigorous and urgent ecological action to reduce consumption of polluting energies and […]
Catering specifically to women – particularly in rural areas – is not only good for gender equality, it is good for business.
BEIJING — An online game from Japan has become a hopping success in China. Unheard of until recently, Tabikaeru: Travel Frog — developed by the Japanese company Hit-Point — is suddenly all the rage, leapfrogging the competition to become the most popular free online game in China’s Apple App Store. Travel Frog requires little of […]
Having experienced its economic collapse a generation earlier than the 2008 crisis, Japan has become a laboratory for making the most out of meek growth.
The rapid rise in part-time employment has undermined what was, until now, the instrument of choice to evaluate the job market. What comes in its place?
Will China’s unfulfilled promises of real market reforms finally come to pass? Eyes on the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party, opening on Oct. 18.
-Analysis- LISBON — What a successful gamble for Lisbon: The European Commission is about to ratify the proposal to end Portugal’s excessive deficit procedure. The country will be joining the club of virtuous economies , against experts’ forecasts. The recovery is a remarkable achievement considering Portugal hit a virtual rock bottom in 2011. On the […]
For the ordinary Mexican, the free-trade agreement has been a chance to build a modern country based on the rule of law, and, above all, a ticket to economic development. Without it, Mexico could quickly slide backward.
-Analysis- PARIS — Last year was full of surprises across the world: a spike of protectionist fever in the United States at the instigation of Donald Trump, an anti-globalization wave of populism in developed countries bogged down by mass unemployment, Britain’s planned exit for from the European Union, worries about a widening inequality gap, migration […]
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No, The West Is Not In Decline
Europe, the United States and other parts of the so-called West may not be booming, but they’re not about to be superseded either. Quite the contrary, in fact.
PARIS — So far, so good. The collapse of the British economy predicted by the former Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, in a case of a Brexit victory, has not materialized. The services sector, which represents 80% of the UK’s GDP even rebounded unexpectedly in August, and business activity recovered its level of March, […]
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 […]
PARIS — The two French visitors just couldn’t get over it. “Why were you wrong again?” the elderly English lady asked them with a severe, inquisitive tone. The woman, Queen Elizabeth II, should have had other things on her mind. It was April 21, 2026, after all, her 100th birthday, and the whole planet seemed […]
SPOTLIGHT: GOOD AND BAD NEWS FOR THE PLANET Breathe in … Last year, an estimated 147 gigawatts was added to the world’s renewable power capacity — the largest such global rise ever recorded, making it an “extraordinary” year for renewable energies. According to the Renewables 2016 Global Status Report, investment in green energies around the […]
The rapid growth of the sharing economy is both inevitable and generally good. But only a fool can believe it will truly disrupt the natural capitalist forces of our market economy.
The Mexican government’s recent actions suggest the ruling party yearns for the days when it governed unchallenged through cronyism. But order comes at a price.
This week’s currency setbacks for the world’s second-largest economy have created a financial ripple effect across the globe, with stock market nosedives and raw material prices dropping to dangerously low levels.
Three key factors in the world’s leading economies may slow growth again, and emerging economies could bear the brunt.
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BEIJING — Since being sworn in as India’s prime minister last year, Narendra Modi’s ambitious reform agenda has made him one of Asia’s most-talked about leaders. The economic program that Modi has put forward is changing the world’s impression of India, confirmed by his just-completed three-day visit to China. At last month’s Hanover Fair, Modi […]
BEIJIJNG — On March 12, Britain applied to join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as a founding member. It was the first major Western country to do so. Other European countries including France, Germany, Italy, but also Luxemburg and Switzerland have since followed suit. Not only has the AIIB attracted more than 20 […]
Beijing wants to control nearly half the world’s robot production by 2020, but the plans to get there have some fundamental flaws. There may still be time to reprogram it all.
With slower demand expected in the world’s raw materials and consumer markets, big Latin American firms must find new strategies.
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Why World Hunger Won’t Go Away
Two new books and a docudrama ask hard questions about how so many can still go hungry in a world of technological advancement and economic growth.
-Analysis- PARIS — A decade after development began in earnest on the “continent of lions” — the result of vast riches in raw materials, and of Africa embracing globalization — the countries from the northern sub-Saharan Sahel region and large parts of central Africa are facing a double threat. Over the past few weeks, panic […]
Current privatization proposals for the telecom and energy sectors suggest Mexico has learned little from the partial, and failed, liberalization processes of the past.
As China expands its anti-bribery crackdown, targeting ritzy gifts to officials, luxury brands are seeing drops in Chinese sales. The hope now is in the rising middle class moving up.
Compared to ancient times, the world is a relatively peaceful place right now. Strangely, this has begun to push economists to study the historical costs and returns of war.
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World Cup Aside, Brazil’s Economy Stinks
If Brazil wants to attain ambitious development goals, it needs radical reforms to its insular economy and inefficient public administration.
Economic growth has brought more people into Latin America’s middle class, a first but insufficient sign of progress in one of the world’s most unequal regions.
Demographically and economically, Africa is well poised for success. But it needs to find new forms of growth and governance – and an end to bloody conflict – to realize its potential.
The migration of rural population into Chinese cities is seen by some as the way to ensure a new burst of economic growth. But urbanization-by-state-planning is not the right road.