Showing 41 - 50 of 61
Crypto markets aren't all the same
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 23/01/2018
» There's a compelling reason to consider what's going on with cryptocurrencies a purely speculative boom-and-bust roller-coaster: Over a three-month period, the prices of all the top coins and tokens are rather strongly correlated, going up and down in unison. What does that make them if not the 21st-century incarnation of tulip bulbs?
A techie Xmas to one and all
Life, James Hein, Published on 20/12/2017
» Another year has passed, and it is time to take a look back.
Digital currencies can hurt the US
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 06/12/2017
» Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's announcement that the Latin American country will issue a cryptocurrency called the petro to overcome a "financial blockade" by the US probably mirrors the thinking of other maverick regimes. The possibility of sanctions-busting, and generally finding a way to work outside the Western-dominated global financial system, makes cryptocurrencies attractive to non-Western nations, and the more so to rogue regimes.
Indians' skills don't match up -- yet
News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 16/11/2017
» If India is to live up the expectations of its own people and become a successful middle-income country in a few decades, the country has multiple problems to solve -- its sclerotic politics, its clogged infrastructure, its choked judicial system, its lack of investable capital, its interfering and inefficient state. But perhaps the greatest hurdle is its poor stock of human capital. Without better education, health and skills, India won't be able to build a middle class and its efforts to become the next China can't succeed.
Authoritarian cryptocurrencies are on the march
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 18/10/2017
» With Russia and China both embracing the idea of sovereign cryptocurrencies, it's time to ask a simple question: Why is a technology threatening to decentralise money so attractive to highly centralised, authoritarian regimes?
Challenges linger for central banks from global crisis
News, Tarisa Watanagase, Published on 04/10/2017
» We are now close to a decade since the global financial crisis. In spite of the massive liquidity injection via unconventional monetary policies of a number of countries to shore up their economies, the path of global recovery is still slow, uneven and fragile.
India's cash experiment a good lesson for the world
News, Published on 12/09/2017
» Almost a year on, India's ban on large-denomination bills has been deemed a "total failure". That's not quite fair. True, the primary goal of flushing out tax cheats has been a flop. But a secondary goal -- "to move toward the cashless society", as India's finance minister put it -- still has real promise. The rest of the world, in fact, could learn a lot from this botched experiment.
Why cold, hard cash remains king in the digital age
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 28/06/2017
» We don't have to like the way technology is changing the world. Given the technological disruption happening everywhere, it's reasonable to expect a little Luddite pushback. The growing share of cash in advanced economies might fall in that category.
Export high owes itself to good luck
News, Editorial, Published on 25/06/2017
» Although Thai exports rose to a four-year high last month, it's still too early to pop the champagne. There remain many challenges ahead for the market. After all, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that exports rose largely due to luck.
Blockchain test could change Russia
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 08/06/2017
» Russian President Vladimir Putin and his economic team have long been under the impression that, to wean the country off its oil dependence, they needed a major leap in some specific area of technology that wasn't yet dominated by Western, Chinese or Japanese tech giants. Their latest hopes are being pegged to the Ethereum blockchain platform.