Showing 1 - 10 of 20
Cutting Asia's reliance on dollars
Oped, Yasuto Watanabe & Hiro Ito, Published on 02/10/2025
» The US dollar remains the world's leading reserve currency, but recent developments -- particularly President Donald Trump's unilateral economic diplomacy, including weaponisation of the dollar -- have fuelled doubts about whether it will maintain that status. While some of America's geopolitical rivals may hope to displace the dollar, the real challenge facing Asian economies is to manage the vulnerabilities created by their heavy dependence on it.
Trump hurting global trade in ideas
Oped, Sally Tyler, Published on 04/08/2025
» Much attention has been focused on Thailand's scramble to achieve a bilateral trade agreement with the United States to avoid a 36% tariff on all exported goods. Yet a different restrictive trade policy has received comparatively less scrutiny -- the Trump administration's clampdown on American universities, including a possible ban on the enrolment of international students.
The rise of consumer cryptocurrency
News, Steve Kaczynski and Scott Duke Kominers, Published on 26/02/2024
» Since its inception with the launch of Bitcoin in 2008, blockchain technology has gone through numerous cycles of public attention. Over time, growing interest and investment in the best-known cryptocurrencies has led to greater acceptance, as highlighted by the US Securities and Exchange Commission's approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF (exchange-traded fund) in January. While blockchains and their associated "crypto" assets have yet to be adopted by a truly broad base of consumers, that is starting to change, owing to a shift in how these technologies are being used.
How new tech can help forge trust
News, Ben Ho, Published on 04/04/2022
» Twitter recently added a feature that lets users identify themselves with an NFT picture, distinguished by a new hexagonal border, rather than just a regular profile photo. An NFT (short for non-fungible token) is a digital commodity, typically an image, whose ownership is recorded on a ledger stored on a blockchain.
'Worthless, risky' cryptocurrencies should be banned
Oped, Willem H. Buiter, Published on 12/02/2022
» The price of Bitcoin has undergone yet another wild gyration, rising from $41,030 (1.3 million baht) on Sept 29, 2021, to $69,000 on Nov 10, 2021, before falling back to $35,075 on Jan 23. That is its second-largest decline in absolute value, though it has suffered larger declines in percentage terms, such as between Dec 15, 2017, and Dec 14, 2018, when it fell by 83.8%. More broadly, the cryptocurrency market (comprising some 12,278 coins) was estimated to be worth $3.3 trillion on Nov 8, 2021, before plummeting to $1.75 trillion as of Jan 30.
The Bitcoin fountainhead can't cure world's ills
Oped, Daron Acemoglu, Published on 23/10/2021
» With the price of Bitcoin reaching new highs, cryptocurrencies are here to stay. What implications will this have for money and politics?
What does 8% growth mean when thousands are still dying?
Bloomberg News, Published on 05/07/2021
» A tidy financial centre of 5.7 million people is gradually preparing for life after the pandemic, as vaccination rates increase, social distancing measures ease and residents once again dare to daydream about leisure travel.
Corn waste to blame
Oped, Postbag, Published on 26/12/2020
» The haze is already upon us, but where does it come from? In Chiang Mai, most point to forest fires, but as the valleys fill with haze with not a forest fire in sight, there must be another source. What is that? Small farmers burning their corn field waste before the burning ban arrives.
Asean must aim higher at November summit
News, Kobsak Chutikul, Published on 10/08/2019
» 'Like red ants on a log floating downstream each certain it is controlling the direction of the flow." That was the acute observation of a coarse-skinned farmer staring at the TV screen at a small coffee shop in a 100-year-old market in Suphan Buri province in central Thailand when images of the grand Asean meeting in the capital Bangkok were being beamed across the world.