Showing 1 - 6 of 6
To conquer the world, China must get smarter
News, Michael Schuman, Published on 14/08/2019
» Many investors and economists continue to believe China's rise to global economic greatness is inevitable. Modern history, however, tells us that graduating from emerging- to a developed-economy status is hardly automatic. An overly intrusive state, dependence on debt, feeble gains in productivity and poor resource allocation are all reasons to fear that China might struggle with the transition like so many nations before it.
South Korea's president tries to rescue liberalism
News, Michael Schuman, Published on 27/09/2017
» While much of the world's attention is fixated on North Korea and its nuclear ambitions, something with the potential to be equally globe-rattling is taking place, generally unnoticed, in South Korea. There, new President Moon Jae-in is charting an entirely contrary course in economic policy than much of the rest of the developed world. If successful, the experiment could alter how governments tackle the most challenging problems of our day.
Zombie firms threaten Asia's future
News, Michael Schuman, Published on 04/04/2017
» Any horror aficionado knows that the only good zombie is a dead zombie. Don't risk trying to bring one back to life. It'll just come back to bite you.
Asia's strongmen not strong enough
News, Michael Schuman, Published on 21/02/2017
» Across Asia, the world has supposedly been witnessing the return of the strongman. Chinese President Xi Jinping has been grasping more and more control in his own hands since claiming power in 2012. Two years later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India and President Joko Widodo (known as "Jokowi") in Indonesia won office by selling themselves as forceful economic and political reformers. All three were heralded as the firm hands these giant developing nations needed to rejuvenate their promising but troubled economies.
Anti-trade policies would make the poor poorer
News, Michael Schuman, Published on 25/01/2017
» Without question, the most exciting economic story of the past half century has been the dramatic, and probably unprecedented, decline in global poverty. In a recent study, the World Bank estimated that in 2015, just over 700 million people remained trapped in desperate poverty, or 9.6% of the world's population. Those sound like big numbers until you compare them to 1990, when nearly two billion people languished in poverty -- a staggering 37% of the global populace. Such progress has raised the real possibility that extreme poverty can be eradicated in the not-too-distant future.
Protests point to more than scandal
News, Michael Schuman, Published on 02/12/2016
» The first big story I covered as a young correspondent in South Korea was a corruption scandal. Two former presidents were found guilty of, among other things, amassing fortunes with payoffs from the country's major business groups, called chaebol. That was 1996.