23 January 2019 One of the unintended, albeit unsurprising, consequences of the current period of ultra-loose monetary conditions has been the extraordinary buildup in debt worldwide. The top Chart illustrates that during the previous business cycle global debt had remained stable at what seemed an elevated level of 80% of GDP. In the aftermath of [...]
11 October 2018 After years of describing NAFTA as "the worst trade deal in history", the Trump Administration along with Canada and Mexico signed the US Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA). The White House, naturally, hails the accord as a historic triumph for American workers and farmers. Critics view the deal as a simple rebranding of [...]
17 April 2018 As with any disputed relationship, there are three sides to every story: my version, their version, and the truth. So it is with the deepening Sino-American bilateral trade conflict. In order to reach a workable resolution to the current dispute (which I fully expect), policymakers on both sides need to consider the [...]
23 January 2018 On 30 January, President Trump will deliver his first State of the Union speech. To be sure, the state of the US economy is healthy (I will leave it to others to assess the state of the Union). Indeed, GDP has advanced at over a 3% clip during the past nine months. [...]