New York Times (September 7)
President “Obama has made headway in reassuring Asian nations that the United States intends to remain a stabilizing presence in the region,” but China’s aggressive moves in the South China Sea will increasingly dominate the future of the region and will present a complicated challenge for Mr. Obama’s successor to manage.”
Tags: Aggression, Asia, China, Headway, Obama, South China Sea, Stabilizing presence, Successor, U.S.
Washington Post (May 22)
“With the Asian economic juggernaut coming to an end, due to lower growth in China, an aging Japan and South Korea, and India’s ongoing problems with corruption and a bureaucracy that impedes structural reform, the continent must be viewed from another angle: as a department store of many of the world’s gargantuan political and military challenges. Indeed, unless Asia’s strategically consequential states can significantly mitigate, if not resolve, the region’s political and military deficits, Asia’s rise will never be completed.”
Tags: Aging, Asia, Bureaucracy, Challenges, China, Corruption, Economic juggernaut, Growth, India, Japan, South Korea, Structural reform
Financial Times (May 20)
“The plunge in yields on corporate and sovereign bonds in Europe and Asia — the value of bonds with a negative yield is nearly $10tn, according to Fitch — has sent investors racing into the US market.” This surging demand “has allowed companies to issue debt at lower yields, though US yields are still more attractive than in other parts of the world.”
Tags: Asia, Bonds, Corporate, Debt, Demand, Europe, Fitch, Investors, Negative yield, Plunge, Sovereign, U.S., Yields
Institutional Investor (February 6)
“Markets across much of Asia, including in China and Korea, will be closed in observance of Lunar New Year this coming week, providing a break for investors concerned over cooling growth in China.”
Tags: Asia, China, Cooling growth, Investors, Korea, Lunar New Year, Markets
Financial Times (October 5)
Amidst continuing outflows, emerging markets are much better placed than before the 1997 Asian currency crisis. “Record levels of reserves” should give “troubled countries a window for reform.” Reserves stand roughly 10 times higher than the past crisis. “While no amount of reserves can withstand the loss of market trust, money does buy time. Using reserves to offset capital flight allows central banks temporarily to avoid the classic EM crisis response of tighter monetary policy amid a recession to protect their currency and avoid imported inflation.”
Tags: Asia, Banks, Capital, Crisis, Emerging markets, Market, Monetary policy, Outflows, Recession Inflation, Reform, Reserves
Wall Street Journal (July 20)
“The Lee family that controls the Samsung conglomerate won its showdown with minority shareholders on Friday, but the vote still represents a watershed for corporate governance in the world’s 14th-largest economy. Though Samsung won, the bell is tolling for South Korea’s chaebol system of corporate control.” The shareholder fight marked “a step forward for corporate reform in Asia” where “a new shareholder class has been mobilized.”
Tags: Asia, Chaebol, Conglomerate, Corporate governance, Lee, Minority shareholders, Samsung, South Korea, Watershed
The Economist (July 4)
“Shale matters. The industry has become huge—listed firms have invested over half a trillion dollars of capital…. Shale firms owe almost as much debt as Greece. After drilling beneath much of Texas and North Dakota, they account for 5% of global oil output. The health of shale firms affects people around the world, from Western drivers and Saudi Arabia’s sheikhs to Asia’s consumers.”
Tags: Asia, Capital, Consumers, Debt, Drilling, Greece, North Dakota, Oil, Output, Saudi Arabia, Shale, Texas
Washington Post (July 3)
“As the Islamic State, Iran and Greece occupy the attention of the Western world, China marches forward, except now it is not just building its economy but also a new geopolitics in Asia.”
Tags: Asia, China, Economy, Geopolitics, Greece, Iran, Islamic State, West
Washington Post (May 27)
“China is attempting to steal a march on its neighbors by rapidly constructing airstrips, ports and other infrastructure on reclaimed land in one of the most sensitive maritime areas in Asia—one with multiple overlapping sovereignty claims. While it probably cannot be stopped, the project should be fully exposed—and China’s attempts to restrict air and sea traffic near its installations decisively rejected.”
Tags: Airstrips, Asia, China, Infrastructure, Ports, Reclaimed land, Sovereignty claims
The Economist (April 18)
“Fears are rising that, after three soaring decades, China is about to crash. That would be a disaster. China is the world’s second-largest economy and Asia’s pre-eminent rising power.” But the fears of the pessimists are overstated. “China is not only more economically robust than they allow, it is also putting itself through a quiet—and welcome—financial revolution.”
