International Political Economy Zone

The adversaries during more cordial times. Unbeknownst to many, one of the linchpins of the post-WWII global infrastructure is coming under sustained attack... from its main beneficiary. The...

http://ipezone.blogspot.com/2024/04/should-frozen-russian-assets-fund.html

Outbound 'r' Us. China is famously in dire economic straits, but how's Japan really doing to solve its longstanding problems like a dearth of working-age citizens? Here's a wrinkle in what ...

http://ipezone.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-exodus-from-low-pay-japan.html

With apologies to Rodney Crowell... Excuse me mister but what did you say? / My hard-earned money’s all gone away / Xi ain’t into capitalism you see / The stock market is just no place to ...

http://ipezone.blogspot.com/2024/04/adios-to-chinese-dream-xis-theme-song.html

Bing prompt: "Draw a businessman leaving China". Hot on the heels of the previous post about how Chinese are showing at the United States' southern border seeking asylum from increasingly di...

http://ipezone.blogspot.com/2023/11/fleeing-china-ii-foreign-divestment.html

The blog's first AI image c/o Bing: "Draw a Chinese person walking through a Panamanian jungle."   A usually good indicator of an underwhelming economy is of a country's citizens departing ...

http://ipezone.blogspot.com/2023/10/chinese-migrants-at-us-border-prcs-dire.html

Just one flagrant American ESG violation among countless others. This news story from Bloomberg had me laffing so hard it hurt: Despite the action being rather novel--banning investment in US T...

http://ipezone.blogspot.com/2023/06/germans-brand-thee-usa-esg-disaster.html

 Each day brings news of a distressed US bank about to take leave for the Great Central Bank In the Sky. Aren't US banks supposed to be safer now with the advent of greater macroprudential regu...

http://ipezone.blogspot.com/2023/05/a-problem-of-unstressful-us-bank-stress.html

At least Chinese state media's take on the topic is obvious. Puns on the term "offshoring"--moving one's production facilities abroad, or having foreign-based concerns manufacture components fo...

http://ipezone.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-trials-and-tribulations-of.html

SoftBank-ARM was a fine idea at the time; now it's a brilliant mistake . Hard as it may be to believe given how downtrodden it is now, Japan's SoftBank was once regarded as a formidable presenc...

http://ipezone.blogspot.com/2023/04/arm-holdings-ipo-ditch-uk-flee-to-us.html

I have a confession to make in being on board "team transitory ", or the belief that the recent (global) increase in inflation is due to largely temporary factors. As these factors fade, we are s...

http://ipezone.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-imf-team-transitory-you.html

The UK will soon join this group, but does it really matter? It has somehow come to pass that the UK has now joined an Asia-Pacific trade agreement. OK, so the free trade agreement in question i...

http://ipezone.blogspot.com/2023/03/geoecon-challenged-uk-in-tpp.html

Of all people, Joe's got the magic touch with petroleum? The endless number of foiled speculators attests to the difficulty of realizing the old adage about how to make money--buy low, sell h...

http://ipezone.blogspot.com/2022/12/joe-biden-oil-trader-of-year-2022.html

 China's epic recurring COVID-19 shutdowns have frustrated multinational corporations aiming for predictability in their supply chains. Sure, China still benefits from having globally-renowned ...

http://ipezone.blogspot.com/2022/06/apple-ipad-soon-made-in-vietnam.html

I've been watching Channel News Asia as of late, and a news item that struck me was the Malaysian ban on chicken exports starting this June. It's very much a supply chain issue: as the price (an...

http://ipezone.blogspot.com/2022/06/supply-chain-woes-hainanese-chicken-rice.html

Japan usually goes along with US economic plans... but how about other Asian countries?    Before Trump, the Republican Party represented the pro-trade American political party--especial...

http://ipezone.blogspot.com/2022/05/bidens-fta-less-ipef-asia-pacific-deal.html

Much has already been written about the emergence of "fast fashion": clothing retailers that are able to translate trends seen on the world's fashion runways... to a store near you in a matter o...

http://ipezone.blogspot.com/2021/12/shein-and-faster-fashions-emergence.html

By now, it should be obvious to just about everyone that goods whose availability we once took for granted are in short supply. Blame COVID-19 lockdowns affecting countries where these goods are...

http://ipezone.blogspot.com/2021/11/2021s-miseries-great-creatine-shortage.html

There are all sorts of unexpected but fairly amusing shortages occurring worldwide given supply chain snarls that are happening as the world deals with the ongoing pandemic. It seems that spread...

http://ipezone.blogspot.com/2021/11/oil-crisis-bah-uks-fake-tan-shortage.html

  There's an interesting article in Fortune on the true environmental costs of using Bitcoin as a medium of exchange to replace cash, debit cards, credit cards, and other commonly-used payme...

http://ipezone.blogspot.com/2021/11/bitcoins-astounding-environmental-cost.html

Unless you've been hiding under a rock these past few months, headlines about how the PRC is cracking down on its most lucrative companies--Internet-based services, video games, online educa...

http://ipezone.blogspot.com/2021/08/next-in-prc-firing-line-hermes-gucci.html

Be fruitful and multiply during the age of climate change? Think again.  One of the most fascinating existential questions has been posed on the business news channel CNBC, of all places,...

http://ipezone.blogspot.com/2021/08/is-childbearing-immoral-amid-climate.html

Ever consider that the US birthrate is dropping precipitously since it's a rather s--tty place to live?   Like most developed countries, the United States is experiencing cratering birth ra...

http://ipezone.blogspot.com/2021/06/falling-births-us-needs-to-actually-be.html

The Finnish far-right scares away many migrants... but how welcoming are ordinary Finns?   There's this interesting conundrum in international migration of countries that, on paper at least...

http://ipezone.blogspot.com/2021/06/happiest-country-finland-has-few.html

Addled horses may be the least of horse racing's worries if the sport's subsidies take a hit. As a casual follower of horse racing, I was intrigued by the legendary horse trainer Bob Baffert ...

http://ipezone.blogspot.com/2021/05/highly-subsidized-us-indusries-horse.html

Will PRC students soon be an increasingly rare sight on Aussie campuses? Just when you thought China-Australia relations could get no worse, it seems they find something new to quarrel about....

http://ipezone.blogspot.com/2021/05/china-oz-trade-war-higher-ed-next.html