Tea leaves

If this is not merely a temporary effect of the stimulus but the start of a long-term shift of industrial production away from China's coast it would not be a surprise to find that it was oriented more strongly toward supplying domestic demand than export markets. Transport and handling costs, for example, would make domestic markets…

Good idea or insidious threat?

But who, other than China, would loose if this idea worked and the Renminbi was revalued? Most of the rest of the world. Especially economies with a comparative advantage in agricultural production (Australia, New Zealand, Latin America) for whom imported Chinese deflation of manufactures prices offsets the EU's depression of agricultural prices (and inflation of manufactures…

Apple’s patent protectionism

The GATT Panel recommended that Member governments ask the USA to amend it's legislation to bring it back into conformity with the GATT. But this was the middle of the Uruguay Round of negotiations, focussing on the TRIPS negotiations on intellectual property. The USA took no action as recommended by the Panel. Finally, in 2000 the…

Discounting the Intergenerational Report

Why do we need an IGR that merely regurgitates what the Government has already claimed about its own policies? An inter-generational report must be an independent and rigorous review of the evidence about policy outcomes to be of any use in the necessary debates about growing our wealth or maximising our opportunities. The current edition is…

Chinese savings rate & the gender balance