Posts of February 2007

Don't Want No @#$%^&! Googlemail

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Internet Governance,Litigation at 2/28/2007 12:49:00 AM

The international political economy of domain names is an interesting subject--especially when obscure entities sue recognized Internet firms for names they claim to have rights to. As a longtime user of GMail, Google's e-mail service, I have a stake in the outcome of the cases against Google. Detractors call what the others have done cybersquatting, but the litigants here may have legitimate grievances. First we have German venture capitalist Daniel Giersch, who registered the name G-mail as a faster alternative to Deutsche Post in 2004. The Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) in Switzerland has decided...

China Sparks Stock Downward Spiral

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Casino Capitalism,China at 2/27/2007 06:37:00 PM

Today, a massive drop in the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) sparked off a global sell-off in stock markets worldwide. At last count, the SSE was off 8.8% and over $100B in equity had disappeared. As always, the reasons why this speculative craze suddenly cratered are not necessarily clear. The first set of reasons concern investors getting spooked by the Chinese government's efforts to cool a speculative craze. The People's Bank of China raised the bank reserve requirement to 10.0% from 9.5% effective February 25. However, the SSE index reached a record high yesterday in the first trading day of the Lunar New Year. The Chinese Securities Regulatory Commission has also been working to stop insider trading and to increase broker transparency. The latter effort was just announced today. Another set of reasons deal with geopolitical events such as rising oil prices, Iran making the usual noises, US Vice-President Dick Cheney almost getting blown up in Afghanistan, and former US Federal...

ASEAN's love/hate China relationship

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in China,Southeast Asia,Trade at 2/27/2007 12:21:00 AM

This op-ed from the Asia Times poses the question: How should ASEAN react to China's growing clout? As with a lot of matters nowadays, it's more of economics shaping how ASEAN reacts to China. China has been both friend and foe to ASEAN. On the positive side: ASEAN agreed in principle to establish a free-trade agreement with China, which by 2010 should represent the world's largest free-trade area, eclipsing both the European Union and the North American Free Trade Area.China's total ...

How NOT to Defend Globalization

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Music,Trade at 2/26/2007 02:27:00 AM

I've just added an RSS feed to the blog's sidebar that collects recent news on globalization. Something that recently caught my eye is this interview of conservative American pundit P.J. O'Rourke. Even when I don't agree with him, I find his writing wryly amusing. Here he claims to represent Adam Smith's viewpoint in trumpeting two articles of the uber-globalizer's faith. First up is "deficits don't matter":PAUL SOLMAN: Well, what, though, would Adam Smith make of the current globalization debate?P.J. O'ROURKE: Well, there are two things that he would immediately say about current globalization debate, is that some of it is morally reasonable and some of it is practically ridiculous.The practically ridiculous part would be about balancing trade. Any trade that is voluntarily made is mutually beneficial, by definition, and, indeed, is balanced, by definition.It doesn't matter how many televisions and computers and pieces of stereo equipment the Chinese send to us, even if they're...

Is Indonesian Secularism Waning?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Religion,Southeast Asia at 2/24/2007 08:59:00 PM

A recent article in TIME asks why stricter forms of Islam are taking hold in Indonesia, a state which used to be referred to as a proponent of moderate Islam. In the past, the state practiced the principle of pancasila, forIn contrast to Muslim nationalists who insisted on an Islamic identity for the new state, the framers of the Pancasila insisted on a culturally neutral identity, compatible with democratic or Marxist ideologies, and overarching the vast cultural differences of the heterogeneous population. Like the national language-- Bahasa Indonesia --which Sukarno also promoted, the Pancasila did not come from any particular ethnic group and was intended to define the basic values for an "Indonesian" political culture.Reasons given for the resurgence of Islamic identification include:1. Economic hardships which continue in the wake of the Asian financial crisis;2. Widening inequality;3. Perceived government ineptitude...

17K Filipino Nurses Banned by US

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Migration,Southeast Asia at 2/24/2007 08:10:00 PM

Globalization means different things to people in different countries. Because finance and trade get a lot of attention, migration sometimes gets forgotten--but not in the Philippines. It represents an interesting case for about ten percent of its population is working abroad. The Philippine political economy is rather unique in that the government is reliant on overseas workers' remittances to finance its balance of payments. Remittances from some 8 million Filipinos working abroad are equivalent to ten percent of Philippine GDP.Filipino workers who are in much demand overseas are nurses, especially in the US. Far larger...

Germany's Fiscal Gap Falls to -1.7%

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Europe at 2/23/2007 12:10:00 AM

Deutschland has endured criticism over continuously violating the Stability and Growth Pact that requires countries adopting the euro to have an annual budget deficit below 3% of GDP. After all, they're the ones who thought it up in the first place. For four consecutive years from 2002 to 2005, Germany violated this stipulation with impunity. But, wonders never cease. Germany has now crawled above this floor. In 2006, it recorded a budget deficit that was -1.7% of GDP. Along with her recent leadership on climate change and successful hosting of the 2006 World Cup, Angela Merkel's record continues to please: this news plus higher-than-expected GDP growth of 2.7% in 2006 and the lowest unemployment rate in five years at 9.5% in January are glad economic tidings, indeed. Compared to the ineffectual Gerhard Schroeder, Merkel is a woman of action. As Claudia Schiffer suggests, perhaps it's time to invest in Germa...

Negotiating with North Korea and Iran

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Security at 2/22/2007 05:29:00 PM

The political theater of negotiations where nothing of significance ever happens with North Korea and Iran is readily explained. My cynical and cyclical take on the matter goes like this: First, Kim Jong-il or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivers a speech on his country's right to develop nukes, typically peppered with statements about "Western warmongers" or "Satanic imperialists." Second, the international community, often led by the American "Globocop," roundly condemns these statements and presses for discontinuance. At this point, negotiators are sent offering carrots (food, aid, energy) and wielding sticks (sanctions, hints...

Save the Patagonian Toothfish!

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Environment,Marketing at 2/22/2007 05:19:00 PM

Here's a perfectly depressing tale of greed, overfishing, piracy, and near-extinction. You may have seen the "Chilean Sea Bass" on the menu at a local eatery. It turns out that this exotic-sounding fish has a far more prosaic name: it's properly called the "Patagonian Toothfish." Given its popularity among diners, this fish is swimming (not running) for its life. First, here's a backgrounder on the fate of the Patagonian Toothfish:For years, fisheries tried unsuccessfully to market the Patagonian Toothfish, but the name was highly unappetizing to the public. It seemed as though the toothfish was doomed to quick condemnation...

Is There a Beijing Consensus?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in China,Neoliberalism at 2/21/2007 09:59:00 PM

The short answer is no--or at least not yet. The inability of many developing countries that have adopted the Washington Consensus to improve their situations has led to a search for new solutions. Recently, Joshua Cooper Ramo coined the term "Beijing Consensus" to describe an alternative to the "Washington Consensus." According to him, this newer consensus involves:1. Innovation and constant experimentation;2. Rejection of GDP growth above all in favor of sustainability and equality;3. Self-determination (take that, nasty World Bank/IMF conditionalities!)Critics of this version of the Beijing Consensus rightly point out that China's environmental woes include having 16 out of 20 of the world's most polluted cities, and that inequality there is high and rising. According to Salon, unsuccessful development coupled with a growing distaste for American paternalism is responsible for the notion of a Beijing Consensus--and not because there is such a thing:But Ramo's assertion that...

Anti-Globalization Toons

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Neoliberalism at 2/21/2007 09:25:00 PM

I had barely survived reading the (in)famous Road to Serfdom comics when I came across this series of cartoons dealing with neoliberalism, or at least a caricaturized version of it. They're none too subtle, but these cartoons do get the main criticisms of neoliberalism across. From Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatista rebels to genetically-modified seeds in India, they've got the bases covered.Particular favorites are "Armed Privatization" and "Neoliberalism Vs. History." The former targets contracts given to American firms in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq, while that latter aims to disabuse its readers of TINA--There...

Japan Joins US in China WTO Case

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in China,Litigation,Trade at 2/18/2007 06:55:00 PM

Japan has joined the US as a third party in the latter's case against Chinese subsidies. The US has asked the EU to join as well, though the EU hasn't yet. At first I was kind of surprised as I assumed that many of the foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) operating in China with Japanese involvement would be hurt. At least that's what I thought before reviewing Whalley and Xin's recent research paper on FIEs in China. American and Japanese FDI is more horizontal in terms of their production that is sold in China; 80% of American and 45% of Japanese production there is destined for the local market. In contrast, FDI from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea is more vertical and geared towards production destined for overseas markets.I have written more about this case on Roubini Global Economics Monitor. Here too is a link to the WTO dispute settlement consultation filing (DS 358). Why the WTO provides documents in Word and not PDF format is a mystery to ...

IPE of the Sad Childhood

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Music,Neoliberalism at 2/18/2007 06:46:00 PM

The United Kingdom has the market cornered in entertainment dealing with crappy childhoods. I've always thought it an oddly British predilection to fetishistically catalog childhood traumas as a form of catharsis. In the seventies, Pink Floyd asked teachers to "leave them kids alone" for "all in all, you're just another brick in the wall." In the eighties, Tears for Fears built an entire career singing about their awful formative years. Similarly, Marillion composed an entire album about "Misplaced Childhood." The Adrian Mole diaries express similar themes in literary form.All this brings me to the current brouhaha over UNICEF's...

Neoliberalism in British Academia?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Education,Neoliberalism at 2/18/2007 06:01:00 PM

I have a secondary interest in the workings of academia. Therefore, I was interested in what David Harvie of Leicester University had to say about neoliberalism in higher education. Harvie adopts a critical perspective and argues that research-assessment exercises are changing the academic paradigm into a less collegial, competition-driven one. Further, this kind of "ownership" might prevent collaborative work in the future among various institutions.In this matter, I am more sympathetic to reforms in British higher education that move it in the direction of the American model. British universities rely on government funding to a greater extent than do American ones. As scholars give lip service to the notion of academic independence, funding sought from non-government sources such as through building endowments helps move British academia in this direction. UK government finances are hardly in the best shape, either. Thus, the RAE and its like help determine where national research...

Power of Choice Meets Walden Bello

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Neoliberalism at 2/17/2007 06:07:00 PM

This clip paints a very favorable image of Milton Friedman. He is, in effect, credited for the demise of the Soviet bloc, the spread of globalization, and the economic rise of China and India. Too, you've got to love that lovey-dovey background music.For an entirely different take on Friedman, read the opinion of anti-globalization activist Walden Bello on his passing: "...people in the [Global] South will remember the University of Chicago professor as the eye of a human hurricane that cut a swath of destruction through their economies." Further, he charges that Friedman was the ideological father of "structural adjustment policies (SAPs), which set the stage for the accelerated globalization of developing country economies during the 1990’s, created the same poverty, inequality, and environmental crisis in most countries that free-market policies did in Chile, minus the moderate growth of the post-Friedman-Pinochet phase."Bello concludes that because of his continued negative...

Mia Doi Todd's IPE Music

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Music at 2/17/2007 05:57:00 PM

OK, so this video is weird in an artsy, over-acted way. But, you can rest assured that Mia Doi Todd makes top-notch IPE tunes. Here are some hard-hitting lyrics from this song, "The Way":We all know they've got it fixedIn politico-economicsWe're junking bonds; we're droppingBombs we've made by guzzling gasolinePublic confidence is shakenLike the apple from the treeMusic is a soundtrack to human endeavor. Let Mia Doi Todd show us "The Wa...

Frequently Asked Questions

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in IPE 101,Service Announcement at 2/16/2007 11:37:00 PM

Welcome! Through timely (and witty) commentary, the IPE Zone aims to be the world's premier outlet for blogging on the subject matter of international political economy. Its content has been referred to by media outlets such as Bloomberg, the Economist, the Financial Times, Forbes, Roubini Global Economics, Salon, Slate, the Times of India, the International Herald Tribune, National Public Radio, and the OECD among others. The IPE Zone has recently been made available on Amazon Kindle in addition to the LexisNexis database. This FAQ has notes about the field of IPE followed by those on this blog's modus operandi. What is IPE? Read Michael Veseth’s primer. Or, for Andrew Walter and Gautam Sen, it is concerned with the way in which political and economic factors interact at the global level. What are the main theoretical perspectives in IPE? Basically, there are three main perspectives in IPE which borrow heavily from International Relations (IR) theory: Liberalism, Realism,...

What is International Political Economy?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in IPE 101 at 2/16/2007 09:55:00 PM

What is IPE? by Michael Veseth International Political Economy (IPE) is the rapidly developing social science field of study that attempts to understand international and global problems using an eclectic interdisciplinary array of analytical tools and theoretical perspectives. IPE is a field that thrives on the process that Joseph Schumpeter called "creative destruction." The growing prominence of IPE as a field of study is in part a result of the continuing breakdown of disciplinary boundaries between economics and politics in particular and among the social sciences generally. Increasingly, the most pressing and interesting problems are those that can best be understood from a multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, or transdisciplinary point of view. If there is an "IPE Project" its objective is to pull down the fences that restrict intellectual inquiry in the social sciences so that important questions and problems can be examined without reference to disciplinary borders. IPE...