Posts of 2009

Sino-US Trade Smackdown: Even More Steel Tariffs

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in China,Litigation,Trade at 12/31/2009 08:40:00 AM

Just when I thought I'd have a nice, quiet New Year's, I am once again reminded that trade squabbles follow no set time schedule. They don't declare a holiday ceasefire and sing "Silent Night" in the trade trenches. No sir, combat in the IPE Zone is ongoing 365/24/7. This one has been expected for quite some time. American unions together with a number of domestic steelmakers had not been content with their prior victory at the US International Trade Commission (USITC) on applying punitive measures against Chinese subsidies and dumping of steel pipe. (The earlier determination is available online if you're interested.) Hence,...

Welcome to the Terrordome: London Uni Radicals

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Security at 12/29/2009 09:31:00 AM

[NOTE: I encourage you to cue the eponymous Public Enemy track before reading on.] Perhaps it's in the air; perhaps it's in the water. Whatever the reason, "Londonistan" remains a powerful draw for extremists seeking an education with a side helping of overthrowing the powers-that-be. I, of course, was reminded of this when the perpetrator of the attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound flight, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was alleged to be a mechanical engineering graduate from UCL (University College London). Fortunately for the passengers of Northwest Flight 253, he wasn't a chemical engineering student, but his attempt was very...

Benedict XVI, IPE Zone Person of the Decade

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Cheneynomics,Development,Environment,Religion at 12/28/2009 06:21:00 AM

You know we've reached the end of the calendar when journalists put out their "best of" lists and name persons of the year. Like many other years in a decade many would prefer to forget, 2009 has not been a particularly memorable one for the human race. Indeed, the choices made this year for person of the year reflect this situation: TIME chose Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, while the Financial Times chose Goldman Sachs supremo Lloyd Blankfein (who claims to do God's work). Mind you, despite my misgivings about the dramatis personae--the latter being a somewhat more inspired choice via his Horatio Alger story--both...

Hugo Chavez, Carmaker

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Latin America at 12/25/2009 07:54:00 AM

Like so many other things, Latin American populismo sounds great over the airwaves but is rather horrible in practice. Once more, Hugo Chavez offers today's case in point. A few weeks ago, we had Chavez railing against corruption in Venezuela's banking system stemming from...er, him giving cronies carte blanche authority over some banking institutions. Today, we receive news that Hugo is back on the expropriation warpath. Apparently, he's targeting automakers in Venezuela for nationalization based on their supposed refusal to sell rugged 4x4s necessary to traverse the often rough terrain of Caracas. (As an aside, wouldn't...

A Global Warming Christmas

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Service Announcement at 12/24/2009 10:55:00 AM

Dear friends, another year is almost done. However, I wish to thank all of you for your continued patronage of the IPE Zone as it's still a going enterprise that will soon celebrate its third year of existence. I never imagined that it would become Google's highest-ranked website for the search term "international political economy" after the Wikipedia entries (at least in my parts of the world). Originally, my ambition was a more modest ones of putting extra course material online for my students. However, it's kept going even after I completed my PhD at the University of Birmingham and headed to the London School of Economics...

Lord Mandelson, Destroyer of UK Higher Ed?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Education at 12/24/2009 06:26:00 AM

For those unfamiliar with him, the only thing you really need to know about Peter Mandelson is that you don't $%^& [insert expletive of your choice] with Peter Mandelson. This New Labour architect has long been known as the "Prince of Darkness" for his ability to quash opponents with ease for three--now going on four--decades. Cartoonists love a character [see picture], and few outdo him. Longtime readers will recall that I noted his return to British politics from exile in Brussels as EU trade minister with great interest. Unlike many other New Labourites, Mandelson has always been a staunch supporter of Britain in the...

OECD Countries: Can You Spare Us $16T in 2010?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Cheneynomics,Credit Crisis at 12/21/2009 04:28:00 AM

If anything else, Hans Blommstein has an interesting job as the head of the OECD's public debt management. I imagine it to be on par with being Tiger Woods' public relations manager in terms of difficulty. Nevertheless, the main difference is that the good Dr. Blommstein has actually put in an appearance in the media instead of constantly hiding away from it despite the OECD states' unvarnished lust for printing IOUs--especially that chronic degenerate Uncle Sam who should rack up $1.5 trillion next year.Dr. Blommstein wrote an op-ed in the Financial Times talking about mind-blowing stuff in rather sedate fashion. He says instead of previous forecasts of the OECD running a collective $12 trillion tab in 2010, it will run, oh, a $16 trillion one in gross terms (or not net of maturities). From the perspective of a debt-fearing individual like yours truly--I shudder at using a credit card--these figures are utterly mad. Nevertheless, there's much interesting commentary here about...

Yuan Regional Trade? SE Asia Now Can Use RMB

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in China,Southeast Asia,Trade at 12/20/2009 12:11:00 PM

Now the game is truly on in contesting regional hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region. Formerly the bailiwick of the United States, unresolved conflicts that are not going well in the Middle East and South Asia have perhaps distracted it from conducting diplomacy there--particularly Southeast Asia. At about this same time last year, China announced that it would begin allowing the use of its own currency for trade facilitation with its territories Hong Kong and Macau as well as ASEAN on a trial basis. To be sure, the yuan (renminbi or RMB) has its share of advantages and disadvantages as a currency in terms of a currency's three...

See? PRC 'Resurrects' Protectionist Tech Policies

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in China,Trade at 12/11/2009 04:54:00 PM

Today is the last day of term and my brain is thoroughly fried. In honour of this occasion, above is a graphic from the Doom 3 expansion pack, The Resurrection of Evil. (This is not the first time I've mentioned this admittedly mindless though classic video game.) For, try as I might to get away from trade spats exploding all over the place, there is no relief as they keep being, ah, resurrected. To put this new trade spat into context, let us recall some recent history.Many countries, especially China, have been critical about US insertion of "Buy American" clauses in the $787 billion stimulus bill of 2009. Now, the United...

"Supermax," America's Homegrown Guantanamos

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Neoliberalism at 12/10/2009 08:02:00 PM

Americans are famously enterprising sorts. Yet, it may not always be the case that their products are desirable for them or the rest of the world. Among other brilliant Yankee ideas are: "Let's give mortgages to people who haven't a chance in hell of paying them back!" (ownership society) and "Let's sell collateralized debt obligations to slice and dice risk to those who are able to bear it!" Today, though, we have an even more sinister sort of American industry--the prison-industrial complex. What is still the most readable work on this phenomenon is Eric "Fast Food Nation" Schlosser's article which appeared in the Atlantic...

Nearly Blanket Beating Up on Banker's Bonuses

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Casino Capitalism at 12/10/2009 04:23:00 PM

Regardless of what you think the relationship is between banker bonuses predicated on short-term performance and the financial crisis, one thing necessary to make punitive measures to deter massive bonuses stick is that various financial centres need to coordinate their activities. That is, bankers can perform a bit of regulatory arbitrage by transferring their employment location to less heavily taxed locations. It's the new tax haven/paradis fiscaux spin: bankers go not to where tax rules are relaxed but where those on bonus rules are. We begin with yesterday's moves by the fabulously furry eyebrowed Alistair Darling--the...

Western Aid Used for GWOT, Not Development

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Development,Security at 12/09/2009 06:41:00 PM

Well this is an absolute non-surprise. Aid proceeds from Western countries destined for Afghanistan have not really gone towards relieving poverty but fighting al-Qaeda and the Taliban according to research just published by some LSE colleagues who've followed the money trail. In many ways, it's reminiscent of the Cold War era when aid--especially that from the United States--went towards propping up corrupt regimes professing adherence to democracy and the fight against communism. Why, just change the world "communism" to "terror" and you get Heroin Hamid Karzai--American puppet (and ballot stuffer) extraordinaire.I guess some things never change. Security interests tower above developmental ones in the realist calculation even with the Soviets long gone. And, somehow, I don't expect Islamic fundamentalism to fade away as quickly. Cue Obamanite cut and run. The following blurb is from the LSE website; you can view the full paper here:Western aid in Afghanistan is being used...