Why counter-puncher Trump’s looming trade war scares everyone on March 26, 2018US President Donald Trump’s is arguably the closest thing America has ever seen to a Potemkin presidency. Using tweets, bombast and interviews with sympathetic journalists, Trump spent the first 405 days in the White House spinning his administration as “running like a fine-tuned machine.” Washington learned to ignore his rants, slights and malapropisms. It was […]
Japan’s experience says: ‘Chill out on the Fed’ on February 5, 2018Economists trying to divine where the Federal Reserve is headed are poring over through reams of data, charts and policy speeches. They really should be looking at Tokyo. Japan has provided many a cautionary tale over the last decade – deflation, dismal demographics, corporate scandals, the dangers of nuclear reactors. One of the most important, […]
How Asia reached a monetary turning point in 2017 on January 1, 2018While the Federal Reserve got all the headlines, Bank of Korea Governor Lee Ju-yeol arguably pulled off 2017’s most important monetary maneuver. Asia’s economies have long been living on borrowed economic time, as central banks have held interest rates low to gin up growth. Look no further than the Bank of Japan, which has been […]
Teflon Abe gets reprieve in dysfunctional Tokyo on August 7, 2017If you’re wondering just how Japan’s Shinzo Abe stays in power despite lower approval ratings than Donald Trump, look no further than Renho Murata. The conventions of Politics 101 seem completely lost on Renho, who until last week ran Japan’s main opposition Democratic Party. Basic theory holds that when your nemesis is on the ropes […]