American Imperialism & Blatter's Last Stand

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 5/29/2015 01:30:00 AM
A match made in hell: Gazprom & FIFA. One good post on battle over futbol mundial deserves another: I am constantly surprised by the amount of global attention the governance of FIFA has received these past few days. On the surface, the politics of an international sporting organization headquartered in Europe should be of limited interest to the rest of the world. For the most part, we watch the World Cup every four years and that's that. Dig below the surface, however, and there is much, much more at stake: the West versus the rest, the corrupting influence of big money, and the governance of global institutions....
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'Teflon' Sepp Blatter & FIFA 'Crime Syndicate'

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 5/28/2015 01:30:00 AM
Can the US Justice Department take down Sepp Blatter, 'evil genius'? Criminal organizations come in all sorts of shapes and sizes these days. Just last week, American financial giants Citigroup and JP Morgan did not contest criminal charges filed by the US Justice Department for rigging foreign exchange markets. Despite the trouble these banks found themselves in with all their multi-billion dollar fines, rest assured that there are even more nefarious organizations out there we're nevertheless familiar with...and I ain't talking about ISIS. Consider FIFA. In two days' time, it will vote on a new president, widely expected...
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Economic Chaos & Venezuela's Inevitable Dollarization

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 5/26/2015 01:30:00 AM
To paraphrase Henry Ford, you can have any car you like as long as you pay in US dollars. The ultimate insult to any socialist Latin American banana republic is to mismanage the economy to the point that it effectively becomes a "dollarized" one. That is, the "official" currency is regarded as practically worthless by the vast majority of the nation's citizens. As a result, the almighty US dollar becomes the de facto tender in the country. Of course, we must distinguish between sponsored dollarization when a state provides official sanction to dollarization and unsponsored dollarization in which a state does not provide...
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Mfg Costs: Leave PRC for Cambodia, Laos & Myanmar

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 5/25/2015 01:30:00 AM
Cheap, cheaper, cheapest: in search of low wages in Southeast Asia's CLMV. The previous post on how China aspires to be Asia's Germany in producing high value-added manufactures jogged my memory about the this earlier article. Vietnam becoming the Republic of Samsung has already been discussed in an earlier post. However, there are also other low-cost destinations in Southeast Asia. Collectively, the latecomers to joining the Association of Southeast nations (ASEAN )are known as the CLMV countries with Cambodia joining in 1999, Laos and Myanmar in 1997, and Vietnam in 1995. Ever on the lookout for relatively skilled workers...
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Adios Sweatshop: PRC's Mfg Plan to be Asia's Germany

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 5/22/2015 10:44:00 AM
Is the sweatshopped China of today soon going to be its past? A few days ago I featured a post on how low-cost manufacturing is migrating to even lower-cost locations than China such as Vietnam. So, even authoritarian China is not immune to upward pressures on wages as firms keen on the cheapest manufacturing possible head elsewhere. Now we receive news that even China is aware of these pressures and is adjusting accordingly. Instead of trying to remain the lowest-cost producer in perpetuity, which is impossible, it too is seeking value-added industries where productivity gains from capital and labor can help ensure that...
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PRC Infrastructure Battle: Japan Pledges $100B for Asia

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 5/21/2015 01:30:00 AM
Will the Japanese International Cooperation Agency of all institutions sink the ADB? There is utterly fascinating news coming out of Tokyo that the Japanese are preparing to provide a hundred billion dollars in funding to Asian countries in need of infrastructure. Especially smarting from being overtaken as Asia's largest and the world's second-largest economy, Japan does not enjoy playing second fiddle to the Chinese (usurpers). I recently made a series of posts on the upcoming formation of the so-called Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)[1, 2, 3]. Notably, the US tried to persuade all and sundry of its allies...
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Eurovision, Migration, Romanian Kids & Workaway Parents

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 5/20/2015 01:30:00 AM
Cherishing those rare time mum is home in Romania. It's that time of the year again when that quintessential display of European unity (really) and sheer weirdness comes around. Yes, it is time for Eurovision 2015.  In recent years, winners have included Finnish Klingons in Lordi and a bearded Austrian transgender, er, performer in Conchita Wurst. Like most entertainment, it is larger than life and over the top--but not always. This year, we have performers tackling the rather more serious but quite common issue of transnational families within the European Union separated by economic migration. Given that the Romanian...
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Is Asian 'Currency Manipulation' Behind US Jokeonomy?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 5/19/2015 08:41:00 AM
Much ridicule has been heaped upon the American economy for its moribund nature as of late. Bill Gross, formerly of PIMCO, famously coined the term the "new normal" to denote US and more broadly developed world growth rates that were subpar; generally in the 0-to-low-2-point-something range. Not to be outdone, the IMF has called it the "new mediocre" because (a) that's what it is based on historical trends and (b) all sorts of [market liberalizing] reforms can be undertaken to encourage more impressive growth. Me? Being no slouch in front of the computer keyboard--or at least I'd like to think so as a blogger--I call it...
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Xiaomi's Lei Jun & Overrating English Language Skills

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 5/18/2015 01:30:00 AM
Xiaomi's Lei Jun: Zen and the art of smart phone launches in overseas markets. One of the greatest conceits English-speaking Western nations have is that comprehension of the language is "developmental." In other words, if you can speak English, your chances of successfully integrating into global markets are increased since it is the language of business. Despite being a native English speaker--the Philippines has two official languages, English and Filipino--I have always doubted this idea. If English speaking gave countries such a leg up, why is it that the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans who have been the most successful...
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Coming Soon? US Navy vs PRC Landgrabbers

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 5/14/2015 01:30:00 AM
Wassup, Chinese landgrabbers? Guess who looks like visiting you soon.. When even the hyper-tabloidal UK Daily Mail features aerial photographs of China's efforts to create artificial islands in the South China Sea--the Philippines now calls it the West Philippine Sea--you know an international relations issue has made it to the prime time. The grievances of China's neighbors--especially the Philippines and Vietnam--are well-known: the PRC is busy constructing these artificial islands to dubiously claim that they generate a 200 nautical mile EEZ around them that is, well, Chinese territory as per maritime law. Since the...
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Fast-Track Authority Fails: Is TPP a Goner?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 5/13/2015 01:30:00 AM
Mission accomplished for trade-bashers; will Obama's congressional foes successfully derail TPP again? While trade has been a moribund topic Stateside for quite a long time, the US Congress voting on whether to grant President Obama fast-track authority--or that which enables him to secure trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership currently being negotiated and have them voted on a yea/nay basis instead of being amended or filibustered--was bound to generate some interest. Unfortunately for Obama, he has just failed to secure the 60 votes needed in the Senate. With fast-track authority stalled, is the TPP too? (The...
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Building Roads: PRC Plot to Buy Off Pakistan?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 5/12/2015 01:30:00 AM
Follow the money trail on the mooted China-Pakistan superhighway. The Chinese way to winning friends by buying off nations is formulaic by now: The first pillar of this diplomatic outreach effort involves unconditional lending of vast sums of money. To this end, the Chinese like to contrast their "mutual benefit" and "mutual respect" against the laundry list of conditionalities imposed by the likes of the World Bank, IMF or regional development banks. The second pillar consists of infrastructure: If the Chinese have gained experience in any particular area over the past few decades, it's in building structures. You name...
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Meet Europe's Hardest Workers: The, er, Greeks

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 5/11/2015 01:30:00 AM
If Greeks work such long hours, then why are they so broke? One of the more astounding facts I routinely come across about Europe is that the Greeks work the most number of hours going by OECD data.This finding, of course, flies in the face of common assumptions nowadays that the Greeks are lazy people whose lack of effort has precipitated the economic crisis it's been facing for years and years. Perhaps the Greeks are the European equivalents of James Brown, the hardest working man in show business? But I digress. The sheer number of hours worked gives very little indication of worker productivity. First, they may be...
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It's 2015, But Japan is USA's Largest Creditor (Again)

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 5/09/2015 01:30:00 AM
A not-quite-newsworthy flashback that I must note nonetheless. This news was buried somewhere with all else that's happening in the world economy, and I'm not sure if it's even that significant, but Japan has resumed the mantle of being the United States' largest lender going by the amount of Treasuries it holds. For the month of February 2015, it's Japan at $1.2244T to China at 1.2237T [cue We are the Champions]. It's certainly not a distinction to be proud of, but for what it's worth, earlier predictions that it would come true have proven good. In mid-2014, the purchases of the Japanese pension fund in foreign sovereign...
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Outmigration: Escaping Greece's Economic Killing Fields

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 5/08/2015 01:30:00 AM
Get the !@#$ outta Greece: the only hope for the future? Oh, dear. Of all the woes besetting modern Greece, here's one that not many talk about but probably will have the greatest impact going forward: the mass exodus of educated young people continues apace. When they install some vainglorious, bald-headed action star wannabe as finance minister, you know that things have only one way to go in the near future: down. With EU membership (for now) guaranteeing freedom of movement, there really is no need for college graduates and other holders of advanced "human capital" to stick around: A devastating brain drain is luring...
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Woman Beater Mayweather, Hublot's Celeb Endorser

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 5/06/2015 01:30:00 AM
Hublot's adverts featuring Mayweather should feature this background music. We haven't had a corporate social responsibility (CSR) post for quite some time, so here's one. I am afraid that the only "knockout" I observed during the much-ballyhooed but ultimately dull Pacquiao-Mayweather "Fight of the Century" was me falling asleep sometime during the third round. Believe me, I was out cold. So the fight itself was utterly forgettable, but one thing I did note before being KO'ed were the Hublot-sponsored trunks Mayweather was wearing. For those of you who don't know Hublot, it's a maker of flashy, bling-bling watches of...
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