“China’s overall surge in credit in the first half of 2009,” an article in yesterday’s People’s Daily assures us, “is normal and healthy; however problems still exist in the structure, quality and flow of credit. China should continue to optimize credit structure and guard against potential risks.” Credible rumors suggest that new loans in June …
Read More…Archive for June, 2009
Can the RMB be more undervalued today than it was last year?
William Cline and John Williamson published on Vox an interesting piece earlier this month June 18), titled “Equilibrium Exchange Rates,” in which they try to “estimate a set of medium-run fundamental equilibrium exchange rates compatible with moderating external imbalances” for the 30 largest economies. They assume that a sustainable equilibrium trade balance for the US …
Read More…China’s savings problem and the consumption constraint
I am, still trying to work out the implications for China of a rise in US household savings, but here is how I see it. I welcome comments that may help me refine or refute this argument. For the sake of simplicity I am going to assume that there are only two countries, the US, …
Read More…Debt is up, trade is down, and we still don’t know which way to list
I am still working on my piece on the global savings adjustment and will probably post it in the next week or so. The main point is to discuss what the implications are for China if we see simultaneously over the next few years an increase in US savings and a reduction in global investment. …
Read More…Stimulus – at what cost?
Today is the second day of the dreaded gaokao, the national college entrance exam that more than half of all Chinese kids in their age cohort will sit to determine whether or not they will go to university (just over 60% of the test takers will start college next September) and, much more importantly, which …
Read More…Trade – it’s not just the currency
One of the reasons why trade-related discussions can seem so off-the-mark, I think, is because the conditions governing international trade are much more complex than we often realize. The determinants of the international balance of trade basically include anything that affects domestic consumption and domestic production, which pretty much means nearly everything in economics. Among …
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