Travel Fad Du Jour: PRC Communist 'Red Tourism'

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 8/31/2011 12:24:00 AM
Revisionism, or Right opportunism, is a bourgeois trend of thought that is even more dangerous than dogmatism. The revisionists, the Right opportunists, pay lipservice to Marxism; they too attack "dogmatism". But what they are really attacking is the quintessence of Marxism - Mao Zedong So we've heard of eco-tourism and political tourism. Without irony, an unrepentant Marxist professor here in the UK I know boasted of how one of the main benefits of the West opening up to China has been the Communist Party profitably commissioning him to do research into Marxist thought. Even with the PRC's bastardized "market socialism,"...
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When Corporations Ruled...Creditworthiness

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 8/30/2011 12:28:00 AM
I enjoy the writings of Gillian Tett of the Financial Times for a very good reason. In contrast to the usual mindless econo-blather you get from financial journalists and the economists they cover, she is a social anthropologist. Unlike the neat and tidy world of neoclassical economics, processes of trade and exchange have a life of their own bound with messier stuff--seven deadly sins, cognitive limitations, emotional frailties, and so forth. Today, she offers an interesting spin on the notion that a country cannot go bankrupt. A few years ago I had the displeasure of reading the sophomoric When Corporations Rule the World...
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Changing of the Guard: Migrate to China, Not US

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,,, at 8/29/2011 12:00:00 AM
It's time to quit messing with deck chairs and abandon the fast-sinking America. Destination: Davy Jones' Locker. The story here is a straightforward application of differences in economic performance between one country that has next to no GDP growth (the US) and one racking up nearly 10% GDP growth year in and year out (China). This growth differential explains employment prospects, particularly for migrant workers. To start, let us remember how the well-deserved S&P downgrade of US sovereign debt was partly attributable to downward statistical revisions indicating stagnant-to-declining GDP in America for nearly four...
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Was Jesus a {Market} Fundamentalist?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 8/26/2011 12:02:00 AM
Praize the Lawwwhd! Having been in Texas for no small amount of time, I have had some interest in the announcement that its governor, Rick Perry, would make a presidential bid. While there are certainly lingering resentments between him and another whose political career path he certainly wishes to emulate, George W. Bush, the essentials of his bid are old. Contemporary American conservatism is an interesting (if often repugnant) brew of discordant tendencies. An especially interesting combination is that of strong professed Christian faith with libertarian overtones. For, as far as I can recall, Jesus was very much a hippie...
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PRC Basketbrawl: Of Hoyas & Anti-US Sentiment

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 8/25/2011 12:02:00 AM
As if Joe Biden's trip to China needed to become more disastrous in the wake of his "reassurances" that China's Treasuries were safe, it turns out that the b-ball team that accompanied him suffered from an even worse fate. The above clip shows the rather violent end of a basketball match in Beijing between the Georgetown Hoyas and the People's Liberation Army squad, the Bayi Rockets of the Chinese Basketball Association. As you would expect from a testosterone-fuelled outfit alike the military, they've often been the most belligerent Communist Party members: Boost military spending! Dump Treasuries to punish America for selling...
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Asia Learned From Its Crisis, US Didn't Part II

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 8/24/2011 12:04:00 AM
[NOTE: This is a sequel to an earlier post.] There often comes a point when the pupil surpasses the mentor in understanding; such is the nature of knowledge transfer throughout much of history. With signs indicating that the US is headed towards yet another recession for the second time in the space of a few years, you have to wonder if it has learned anything. To be sure, American policy handling of the Asian financial crisis was severe in the demands the IMF made of crisis-hit nations. Ideologically inspired strictures on liberalization, deregulation and privatization were the order of the day. Still, more sensible ones such as keeping tight reins on external and fiscal balances were in time achieved in most of these Asian countries. The obvious contrast is with present-day America. Onetime neoliberal apostle Larry Summers is typical of American hypocrisy when crisis hit the US itself. Not only have its leaders championed deliberalization, reregulation, and nationalization,...
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Bernanke, Japan's Lost Decade & US Lost Century

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 8/23/2011 12:07:00 AM
With the yields of Treasuries pointing towards the US re-entering recessionary straits, all eyes have turned towards the upcoming central banker jamboree at Jackson Hole this coming Friday. Although the Fed is supposed to be an independent central bank, the "new normal" of growth in the 1-2% range coined by PIMCO which even I find optimistic is not really a politically palatable status quo. It was not so long ago that central bankers were hailed as new heroes for licking inflation for good. Now, however, it seems they are being asked to perform superhuman feats in turning around the course of iceberg-bound US(S) Titanic....
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China Renews Its Southeast Asia Charm Offensive

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 8/22/2011 12:01:00 AM
It's partly my fault as well but when you hear "China" mentioned together with "Southeast Asia," the first thing which comes to many a mind is conflict over the strategically located and (potentially) energy-rich islands in the South China Sea, AKA the Southeast Asia Sea or the West Philippine Sea. It is perhaps with respect to these islands that China's charm offensive most falters in its bid to gain favour among its Southeast Asian neighbours. It is also where the intricacies of Asian political economy are best on display. That is, how do politically-charged territorial disputes colour the economic logic of regional integration? To...
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Two Novels to Enjoy American Decay By

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 8/21/2011 05:09:00 PM
To be sure, the United States is a pretty miserable place already that's only getting worse by the minute. The process of mortally undermining this once-proud nation that began with Bush the Second is now being put the finishing touches on by Obama. Delusional USA#1 cheerleaders aside, poll after poll reveals similar findings: Americans agree that America's future stinks. Stick a fork in it; it's been done in by their collective misbehaviour. In this weekend feature I bring you two recent book finds that you may have already come across anyway. Essentially, the American situation looks pretty much unsalvageable given rather...
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HaHaHa: Mathlexic Biden in China, Geithner Wannabe

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 8/19/2011 10:18:00 PM
On 1 June 2009, US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner famously elicited peals of laughter from Peking University students while blabbering about China's US Treasuries being a safe investment. As an aside, PKU students are sharp; after all, we at IDEAS have an LSE-PKU double degree programme with them. But anyway, a trip down memory lane... "Chinese assets are very safe," Geithner said in response to a question after a speech at Peking University, where he studied Chinese as a student in the 1980s. His answer drew loud laughter from his student audience, reflecting scepticism in China about the wisdom of a developing country accumulating a vast stockpile of foreign reserves instead of spending the money to raise living standards at home. Ah that Timmy, always such a kidder. But wait, there's another PT Barnum wannabe in US government trying his comic stylings on the Chinese people. I guess it's good that some of the latter are the world's craziest fools, otherwise I don't quite know...
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Jeff Sachs on Fixing What Ails the West

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 8/19/2011 12:02:00 AM
Never let it be said that Jeff Sachs has modest ambitions. After all, he's the guy who predicted that The End of Poverty was not only possible but attainable in the not-so-distant future. While those of us who lack such massive self-confidence and clairvoyance are still twiddling our thumbs, rest assured that Sachs has gone on to other Big Things in the meantime. Take, for example, his new missive on solving woes afflicting Western countries. With stock markets taking a synchronized nosedive, Sachs offers his prescriptions on how effective governance can save these countries from...miserable fates. At first, he attributes...
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Now for a Real Crisis: No Football in Italy, Spain?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 8/19/2011 12:01:00 AM
You are most probably aware of the bloodbath occurring in markets worldwide in anticipation of another global slowdown, with developed countries leading the way down into the abyss. I just wanted to point out that Europe's misery is being compounded by those archetypal caviar socialists, football players. Italian players are threatening to strike over becoming "soak the rich" targets, while Spanish ones are threatening industrial action over unpaid wages to those plying their trade in smaller teams. So it's another incipient crisis without the balm of at least being able to watch soccer: Europe's economy must be in real trouble: the pain is spreading to the continent's soccer teams. In Italy, top players are threatening to strike over the extra "solidarity tax" the government has imposed on high-earners. The players, who generally agree to their wages net of taxes, want the clubs that employ them to foot their higher tax bills. The clubs—including AC Milan, owned by...
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Hard Up Manchester United's Singapore Salvation

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 8/18/2011 12:01:00 AM
It's not me who came up with the stereotype of the Ugly American: fat, loud, thick and full of debt--they themselves did. Yet few raise others' ire more than the reviled Glazer clan, rapacious owners of Manchester United. These modern Yanquis par excellence are saddling this proud football team with the biggest debt in the English Premier League and raising ticket prices to stratospheric levels regular fans can barely afford. (Chelsea AKA Chelski's "written off" loans are from Roman Abramovich's own kitty, not due to [obviously hoodwinked] banks alike the Glazer's towering obligations.) A few months ago I wrote about grassroots...
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Tobin Tax, Merkel & Sarkozy's Euro "Saviour"?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 8/17/2011 09:34:00 PM
At various times in the aftermath of the US-engineered global financial crisis, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy have both called for a Tobin Tax to be applied to financial transactions. By imposing a small tax on financial transactions such as foreign exchange trading, seriously large revenues can be raised in theory (Sarkozy bandied about the figure of $100B at the G20 earlier this year). While left-leaning activists want to apply a Tobin Tax to help address global poverty and slow the velocity of finance, these European leaders are more interested in generating revenues that help keep troubled Eurozone economies afloat....
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Roubini, Marx, Globalization & First World Inequality

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 8/17/2011 12:01:00 AM
This post is a continuation of a recent thread in which more or less conventional economist Nouriel Roubini lauds Marx for correctly describing the situation most of the industrialized world now finds itself in. But first let me revisit a step-by-step compressed version of Marx's explanation: Value is created through labour; Innovation, the bedrock of capitalism, finds ever-newer ways of extracting more "surplus value" at the expense of labour; Since less labour becomes necessary relative to capital as innovation takes place (for productivity has been enhanced), the labourers' share of income diminishes while that of capital holders increases; This process leads to the greater polarization of winners (capital) and losers (labour); Eventually, labour's share of income becomes so minuscule that there are few left who can buy all the wonderful goods and services wrought by innovation; Capitalism succumbs under the weight of its internal contradictions.While I...
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Best Served Cold: US Harrassment of S&P Begins

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 8/16/2011 12:02:00 AM
Ah, revenge. In case you missed it, I guess that it was coming anyway: A few days ago prior to the US downgrade, I discussed how Italy had raided rating agencies S&P and Moody's over the appropriateness of their practices in assigning ratings to its sovereign debt. Aside from them insinuating that the Greek debt crisis would become a pan-Eurozone contagion, another investigation is looking into whether suspicious trading occurred around the time when agencies were making unfavourable comments about public finances. In that earlier post, I too wondered if the United States was about to embark on its own anti-rating agency...
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