China may soon run its first annual current-account deficit in decades – The big flip
12/04/2019
THAT CHINA sells more to the world than it buys from it can seem like an immutable feature of the economic landscape. Every year for a quarter of a century China has run a current-account surplus (roughly speaking, the sum of its trade balance and net income from foreign investments). This surplus has been blamed […]
A Chinese economist explains what we get wrong about the trade war
28/03/2019
Fearful that China’s rise threatens livelihoods in the United States and anxious to protect the intellectual property of American companies, President Trump slapped tariffs on $250bn worth of Chinese goods in 2018. China, meanwhile, retaliated with duties on $110bn of US products. The US had threatened to escalate the situation by increasing tariff rates on […]
Oh **UK! What next for Brexit? – A country in chaos
27/03/2019
WHEN HISTORIANS come to write the tale of Britain’s attempts to leave the European Union, this week may be seen as the moment the country finally grasped the mess it was in. In the campaign, Leavers had promised voters that Brexit would be easy because Britain “holds all the cards”. This week Parliament was so […]
A French habit is spreading – European governments are intervening in business again
25/03/2019
IF YOU CAN’T beat them, adopt their worst economic policies. Worried about the “aggressive strategies” of America and China, France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, issued a Europe-wide proclamation on March 4th that, among other things, proposed a new revolutionary era of government intervention in European Union businesses (see article). “We cannot suffer in silence,” he declared, […]
Europe and America must work to stop their relationship unravelling – Transatlantic relations
22/03/2019
THE ATLANTIC OCEAN is starting to look awfully wide. To Europeans the United States appears ever more remote, under a puzzling president who delights in bullying them, questions the future of the transatlantic alliance and sometimes shows more warmth towards dictators than democrats. Americans see an ageing continent that, though fine for tourists, is coming […]
The struggle to reform China’s economy – Pandas can fly
09/03/2019
FOR THE past two weeks Chinese and American negotiators have been locked in talks in Beijing and Washington to end their trade conflict before the deadline of March 1st, when America will ratchet up tariffs on Chinese goods or, perhaps, let the talks stretch into extra time. Don’t be distracted by mind-numbing details on soyabean […]
Millennial socialism – The resurgent left
05/03/2019
AFTER THE collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the 20th century’s ideological contest seemed over. Capitalism had won and socialism became a byword for economic failure and political oppression. It limped on in fringe meetings, failing states and the turgid liturgy of the Chinese Communist Party. Today, 30 years on, socialism is back in […]
How young people are turning the tide against corruption
26/02/2019
This is not filling global youth with hope for the future. Young people continue to name corruption as the biggest challenge they face, according to a survey carried out through the Accountability Lab in conjunction the World Economic Forum. And with good reason – corruption has a high cost for society and the economy. It […]
The fragmentation of the big parties – British politics
25/02/2019
IN THE PAST few years many of the MPs in Britain’s main parties have grown increasingly unhappy. One reason Brexit has proved tricky is that the party divide does not map onto views about Europe. This week 11 moderate MPs, eight Labour and three Conservative, decided that they had had enough—and more may join them. […]
Thailand’s king blocks his sisters attempt to become prime minister – Thai politics
24/02/2019
THE PLAN was too bold. On the morning of February 8th the Thai Raksa Chart party surprised the world. It submitted just one name to the Election Commission to run as its candidate for the office of prime minister: Princess Ubolratana. The likely outcome of an election slated for March 24th seemed to change in […]
Sweden gives all employees time off to be entrepreneurs
23/02/2019
Anyone who’s been in full-time employment for at least six months is entitled to apply for the unpaid sabbatical, or tjänstledighet, as it’s called in Sweden. Employers can only turn the request down if the employee is vital to the business’s operations. Also, your new idea can’t compete with your existing employer, nor cause them […]
Four ways we can fix economics in 2019
15/02/2019
A Brexiteer’s statement in the wake of the referendum in 2016 captures the frustrations felt by many under the twin forces of globalization and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Never has the economy changed so quickly, nor with such glaring visibility of the gap between the winners and those left behind. The backlash is hardly surprising. […]
Chinese investment in infrastructure is often a diplomatic trap – Banyan
04/02/2019
FOR MONTHS Mahathir Mohamad has been plucking up courage to declare that, when it comes to Chinese investment in infrastructure, his is the Malaysia that can say no. At a projected cost of $20bn, the East Coast Rail Link, planned to run down peninsular Malaysia’s eastern seaboard before cutting west, is a big deal. In […]
The top 10 European cities to launch a business in after Brexit
01/02/2019
Brexit. Since June 2016, it’s been the word on everyone’s lips and – with fresh commentary flooding news outlets and social media every day – at everyone’s fingertips. Today, much of this discourse is fuelled simply by uncertainty. We all know how Brexit came to be, but as yet nobody knows exactly what’ll happen after […]
The steam has gone out of globalisation – Slowbalisation
29/01/2019
WHEN AMERICA took a protectionist turn two years ago, it provoked dark warnings about the miseries of the 1930s. Today those ominous predictions look misplaced. Yes, China is slowing. And, yes, Western firms exposed to China, such as Apple, have been clobbered. But in 2018 global growth was decent, unemployment fell and profits rose. In […]
Why universities for the elderly are booming in China – The Economist explains
28/01/2019
SEVERAL times a year, groups of silver-haired Chinese people camp out overnight. They do so in order to get prime spots to register for places at the country’s universities for the elderly. Since 1983, when China’s first such school opened, 70,000 more have cropped up across the country. They offer courses in pursuits like dancing, […]
How to survive and thrive in our age of uncertainty
16/01/2019
We are living through an era of intense turbulence, disillusionment and bewilderment. Deepening geopolitical tensions are transforming international relations, and political tribalism is revealing deep fissures within countries. The spread of exponential technologies is upending long-held assumptions about security, politics, economics and so much more. At least two factors distinguish the current phase of globalization […]
What Countries and Companies Can Do When Trade and Cybersecurity Overlap
15/01/2019
Jeffrey Coolidge/Getty Images Cybersecurity as a key issue for trade policy is a relatively new development. In the last few years there have been a number of news reports about various governments’ incorporating spyware, malware, or similar programs into computer-based products that are exported around the world. The governments typically have worked with private companies […]
3 ways to be a good leader in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
14/01/2019
The world is seeing revolutionary advances in science and technology – artificial intelligence, gene editing, robotics, and so on – that have together been dubbed the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”. Success in this new era – whether that means corporate profits, macroeconomic growth, human welfare or solving the most intractable problems facing the world – will […]
Is this a turning point in the fight against slavery?
08/01/2019
Arguably the most famous brand in the world, Apple had not only publicly taken steps to try to eradicate forced labour from its operations, it had walked away with the top prize. Despite its vast and complex networks of supply chains, the high-profile jury of experts judged that Apple was “leading the way in all […]
Carlos Ghosn, Nissan, and the Need for Stronger Corporate Governance in Japan
12/12/2018
Westend61/Getty Images Carlos Ghosn was widely recognized as a hero in Japan for turning around Nissan when it was on the brink of bankruptcy in 1999. Things couldn’t look more different today. Ghosn was recently arrested for financial misconduct, fired from his position as Nissan’s board chairman, and criticized by Nissan’s Japanese CEO for accumulating too much power. […]