Content Type: Policy Brief / Political Geography: United States / Topic: International Trade and Finance

101. How much do U.S. corporations know (and care) about bilateral investment treaties? Some hints from new survey evidence

Author:: Jason Webb Yackee
Publication Date:: 11-2010
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:: A remarkable number of countries have recently entered into bilateral investment treaties (BITs) as a means of protecting and promoting inward foreign direct investment (FDI). But do the treaties “work?” In exchange for giving up some mea sure of regulatory autonomy, host countries hope to receive increased flows of investment. Scholars have devoted substantial energy to examining whether this so-called “grand bargain” has in fact been realized. Most studies follow a common research design. The number of BITs that a state has signed are counted up, with the resulting independent variable regressed against country-level FDI flow data. Unfortunately, the results of these various and increasingly complex statistical exercises are inconsistent. 1 Some studies show that BITs can have massive positive impacts on foreign investment; others show modest positive impacts; others show no impact at all, or even a negative impact.
Topic:: International Trade and Finance, Bilateral Relations, and Foreign Direct Investment
Political Geography:: United States

102. State-controlled entities as claimants in international investment arbitration: an early assessment

Author:: Michael D. Nolan and Frédéric Sourgens
Publication Date:: 12-2010
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:: State-controlled entities (SCEs) are increasingly important participants in international investment flows and international trade. Cumulative FDI by sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) has reportedly reached US$100 billion. SWFs are significant equity investors in, and provide significant debt financing to, every kind of company, from professional sports franchises to container ports. In addition to the role of these funds, national oil companies are growing in regional and international importance. In many countries, other industries are also increasingly government-owned.
Topic:: Development, Government, Industrial Policy, International Trade and Finance, Political Economy, and Foreign Direct Investment
Political Geography:: United States

103. Can the U.S. Remain an Attractive Host for FDI in the Auto Industry? New Labor Policy and Flexible Production

Author:: Terutomo Ozawa
Publication Date:: 10-2009
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:: President Obama has been supporting a new bill, the Employee Free Choice Act, designed to promote the labor unions' drive for unionization. This bill, if enacted, will surely be a big boon for unions as it helps enlarge their membership, enhance their bargaining power vis-à-vis businesses, and enrich their coffers to wield political clout. An important issue here, however, is how such reinforced unionism contributes to the U.S.'s much needed industrial competitiveness and employment—and, more specifically, how this new policy will affect the U.S. as a host to FDI in the auto industry.
Topic:: Economics, Industrial Policy, International Trade and Finance, and Foreign Direct Investment
Political Geography:: United States

104. International Investment Arbitration: Winning, Losing and Why

Author:: Susan D. Franck
Publication Date:: 06-2009
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:: We know several things about foreign investment. First, foreign investment matters, reaching US$1.7 trillion in 2008. Second, we know that foreign investors have new international law rights to protect their economic interests. Third, we know that those rights are now being used.
Topic:: Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Foreign Direct Investment
Political Geography:: United States

105. The global financial crisis: will state emergency measures trigger international investment disputes?

Author:: Anne Van Aaken and Jürgen Kurtz
Publication Date:: 03-2009
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:: Several developed countries have introduced emergency measures to mitigate the effects of the Global Financial Crisis, including Australia, Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Although the measures taken are still undergoing changes by the executive branch and are thus a “moving target”, our survey reveals early evidence of differentiation between foreign and domestic actors in the emergency plans adopted by this sample grouping. It is this differentiation that may give rise to liability as breaching guarantees against discrimination of foreign investors under international investment law.
Topic:: Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, International Affairs, Foreign Direct Investment, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:: United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, and Ireland

106. Pacific Asia and the Asia Pacific: The Choices for APEC

Author:: C. Fred Bergsten
Publication Date:: 07-2009
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:: The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum comprises 21 developed and developing economies that surround the Pacific Rim. The organization was created in 1989 and holds annual Leaders' Meetings that bring together its heads of government. In this policy brief, I assess the record of the APEC over the 20 years of its existence and discuss the world environment in which APEC is likely to be operating in the next 20 years, with a particular focus on the major change in global institutional arrangements implied by the replacement of the Group of Seven/Eight (G-7/8) by the Group of Twenty (G-20) as the chief steering committee for the world economy and, within that group and other international economic organizations, the increasingly central role of an informal and de facto Group of Two (G-2) between China and the United States.
Topic:: International Relations, International Trade and Finance, Regional Cooperation, and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:: United States, China, Asia, and Australia/Pacific

107. Understanding Special Drawing Rights

Author:: John Williamson
Publication Date:: 06-2009
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:: A once-familiar but long-neglected acronym has reappeared in newspapers in recent weeks. We have read that the G-20 meeting in London endorsed a proposal that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) should create $250 billion in Special Drawing Rights (SDRs). We have been told that one problem with this proposal is that most of the SDR allocation would accrue to countries that are unlikely to use them, and some readers may have seen proposed ways around this difficulty. We have read that the governor of the People's Bank of China, Zhou Xiaochuan, has proposed that the SDR should gradually displace the dollar at the center of the international monetary system and that surplus countries should be able to convert their dollar holdings into SDR-denominated assets. No one can doubt that the SDR is back.
Topic:: Economics, International Cooperation, International Political Economy, International Trade and Finance, and Monetary Policy
Political Geography:: United States and China

108. Improving U.S.-China Relations: The Next Steps

Author:: Richard N. Rosecrance
Publication Date:: 09-2009
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:: A higher Renminbi will have two advantages: for the United States, it will help to equilibrate the past trade imbalance; for China, it will stimulate consumption (and enhance imports). It will therefore help China switch from a purely exporting strategy to one that maintains domestic growth through internal consumption. The goods that were to be sent abroad can now be consumed by an increasingly middle class nation at home. These steps will bring China and the United States closer economically and increase international stability. However, unless the military-security relations of the two countries improve, this will not be a sufficient remedy for the two nations' long term problems.
Topic:: International Political Economy, International Trade and Finance, and Bilateral Relations
Political Geography:: United States, China, and Germany

109. How Do We Know This is Not Another Great Depression? Lessons for Policymakers from the 1930s

Author:: Jeffrey Frankel
Publication Date:: 07-2009
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:: The current economic crisis is fundamentally different from those we have experienced in recent past. The proximate causes of previous recessions (1980-2 and 1990-91) were increases in interest rates in response to inflation. This time around, however, low interest rates and loose monetary policy during the period 2003-2005 had contributed to a bubble in asset prices, rather than to inflation. This-coupled with an underestimation of risk in our financial system, failures of corporate governance, and excessive debt by both households and government-caused the crisis of 2007-09.
Topic:: Economics, International Trade and Finance, Monetary Policy, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:: United States, Japan, and Germany

110. The Future of the Dollar

Author:: Richard N. Cooper
Publication Date:: 09-2009
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:: The US dollar is not the world's key currency by policy design, just as English is not the leading global language by policy design. It is the evolutionary outcome of practice and experience. It would take both a major shock to the dollar and a viable alternative to dislodge it from widespread use. Like a common language, the dollar enjoys “network externalities”— the greater the number of people who use and accept it, the more useful it is to everyone, and the more entrenched it becomes. Also, what is not quite the same thing, the dollar enjoys a large market in low-risk and highly liquid securities, most notably US Treasury bills; the liquidity both enhances and is enhanced by the network externalities. Most of the world's foreign exchange transactions directly involve the US dollar. It is easy to hold and easy to use, even on a large scale. In short, it is highly convenient.
Topic:: Economics, Foreign Exchange, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

111. Why SDRs Could Rival the Dollar

Author:: John Williamson
Publication Date:: 09-2009
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:: In a recent Cato Institute paper, Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar (2009) asserts that the International Monetary Fund's special drawing rights (SDRs) cannot rival the US dollar, as suggested by the Chinese central bank governor (Zhou Xiaochuan 2009). “The SDR is not a currency and never can be,” Swami declares confidently in the first paragraph of his paper. He presents two arguments, which are presumably supposed to be proofs of this proposition.
Topic:: Economics, Foreign Exchange, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

112. The 2008 Oil Price "Bubble"

Author:: Mohsin S. Khan
Publication Date:: 08-2009
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:: As oil prices began to rise in 2009 from a low point of about $40 a barrel in January to around $70 a barrel in July, a key question is whether the world is in for another oil price spike in the near term similar to that witnessed in early 2008. Several hypotheses were advanced when world oil prices started their inexorable climb from 2003–04 onwards, then skyrocketed from $92 a barrel in January 2008 to cross the $140 a barrel mark in June, finally hitting a record high of $147 a barrel on July 11, 2008, before collapsing to less than $40 a barrel in December (figure 1). There was the “peak oil” explanation, based on the theories of M. King Hubbert of “Hubbert's Peak” fame and his supporters, notably Colin Campbell and Matthew Simmons, that the world was running out of oil. There were the market “fundamentalists,” including importantly John Lipsky, the first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and Philip Verleger, a well-known oil expert, who argued that the fundamentals of demand and supply were primarily behind the extraordinary rise in oil prices in the first half of 2008 (Lipsky 2009a, 2009b; Verleger 2005, 2008). Interestingly, this fundamentals view was also shared by the US Treasury and was articulated by David McCormick, then undersecretary for international affairs, in a presentation in July 2008 at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Finally, there were those who maintained that such an increase could only be a “bubble,” unexplained by peak oil theory or market fundamentals. Many financial-market participants were proponents of this third view, notably Michael Masters (2008), as well as the main oil producers, who were as surprised as anyone at the speed and size of the price increase over only a few months. Their argument was that the phenomenal increase in financialization of commodity markets during 2006–08, including in particular the oil market, led to speculation and momentum trading, which pushed oil prices way beyond their long-term equilibrium level as determined by fundamentals.
Topic:: Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Oil
Political Geography:: United States

113. The Global Economic Crisis after One Year: Is a New Paradigm for Recovery in Developing Countries Emerging?

Author:: Wim Naudé
Publication Date:: 08-2009
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: United Nations University
Abstract:: T HE ECONOMIC DOWNTURN AND RECESSION, WHICH spread across the globe following the US sub-prime mortgage crisis in September 2008, has become the dominant news topic of the past year. One year into the crisis it has become clear that the paradigm for international development has changed irrevocably. With leadership, moral authority and the capacity of the West diminishing, developing countries' recovery and future growth will critically depend on their own initiatives and solutions.
Topic:: Economics, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:: United States

114. The Value of International Education to U.S. Business and Industry Leaders: Key Findings from a Survey of CEOs

Publication Date:: 10-2009
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Institute of International Education (IIE)
Abstract:: Study abroad experience is widely recognized among senior management as having the potential to cultivate valued skills and desirable personal qualities in new recruits. In a recent survey, ninety percent of senior management who reported studying abroad during their own careers also reported a hiring or promotion strategy that actively sought out and rewarded study abroad experience. This suggests that individuals with personal experience studying abroad are more likely to place a higher value on the study abroad experience of a potential employee. However, appreciation of study abroad experience in recruitment is not limited to management with personal study abroad experience: 60 percent of all respondents reported that the hiring and promotion strategy of their companies acknowledge the importance of a study abroad experience.
Topic:: Education, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Labor Issues
Political Geography:: United States

115. Avoiding Mutual Misunderstanding: Sino-U.S. Relations and the New Administration

Author:: Tianjian Shi and Meredith Wen
Publication Date:: 01-2009
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:: After the election of Barack Obama as president, Carnegie's Beijing Office assembled a group of leading scholars of international relations to discuss their expectations of the new administration. This policy brief conveys their opinions on various aspects of Sino-American relations and on America foreign policy in general.
Topic:: International Relations, Foreign Policy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States, China, and Beijing

116. Money for the Auto Industry: Consistent with WTO Rules?

Author:: Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Claire Brunel
Publication Date:: 02-2009
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:: As the financial crisis threatens to lead to a depression, the woes of the automobile industry are second only to the distress of the financial sector. Employment in the US auto industry dropped 9 percent between 2007 and 2008, with much more to follow in 2009. Overall, US auto sales dropped 18 percent between 2007 and 2008, and sales of SUVs plunged 44 percent on a year-over-year basis. Since some sort of financing is required for 90 percent of US car sales, the global credit freeze hit the auto industry with a second blow.
Topic:: Economics, International Political Economy, International Trade and Finance, Poverty, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:: United States

117. A Green Recovery? Assessing US Economic Stimulus and the Prospects for International Coordination

Author:: Trevor Houser, Shashank Mohan, and Robert Heilmayr
Publication Date:: 02-2009
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:: As the 111th Congress begins and a new president takes office, the economic crisis dominates the US policy agenda. The financial system remains in a tenuous state despite massive bank recapitalization, and the economy, more than a year into the current recession, shows no signs of recovery. Given the scale of the challenge Washington faces and the amount of money required to combat it, there will likely be little room for other legislative priorities. As a result, policymakers are hoping to direct government spending over the next two years in a way that not only generates short-term economic growth and employment but also addresses long-term policy goals sidelined by the current crisis.
Topic:: International Relations, Climate Change, Economics, Environment, International Political Economy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

118. Buy American: Bad for Jobs, Worse for Reputation

Author:: Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Jeffrey J. Schott
Publication Date:: 02-2009
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:: On January 28, 2009, the US House of Representatives passed its economic stimulus plan, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Out of the bill's 700 text pages, a small half-page section attracted enormous media attention: the section requiring that all public projects funded by the stimulus plan must use only iron and steel produced in the United States (box 1). Another provision, which drew less attention, extends the so-called Berry Amendment (an old Buy American provision) to uniforms purchased by the Department of Homeland Security.
Topic:: Economics, Globalization, Government, Industrial Policy, International Political Economy, International Trade and Finance, and International Affairs
Political Geography:: United States

119. The Private Sector in Security Sector Reform: Essential But Not Yet Optimized

Author:: Robert Perito
Publication Date:: 01-2009
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:: While the U.S. and world economies are slowing markedly, Security Sector Reform (SSR) is a growth industry for the private sector. U.S. government employees may set SSR policy and design projects, but implementation is extensively outsourced to private contractors. With the forthcoming surge of U.S. military forces into Afghanistan, the U.S. Army has announced contracts worth $1.1 billion for the construction of military bases and training centers for Afghan military and police. Private firms supply everything from construction materials to trainers and administrative staff. Private contractors operating in Pakistan and Afghanistan are required to provide their own security. Up to 15 percent of the cost of construction will go to private security firms, which guard convoys, facilities and personnel.
Topic:: Security, Economics, Government, International Trade and Finance, and Markets
Political Geography:: Pakistan, Afghanistan, and United States

120. A Draft Convention on Illicit Trade in Precious Metals and Precious Gems

Author:: Jonas Hartelius
Publication Date:: 02-2009
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: EastWest Institute
Abstract:: Precious metals and gemstones have long been valued for their aesthetic properties and ability to retain (or increase) their value. Many precious metals today are also used in the manufacture of high technology commodities. Their high value makes precious metals and precious gems attractive to criminals. They have several functions in the criminal economy: They are attractive goods for theft and other forms of criminal acquisition, calling for special protection on the part of the owners and governments. They can be used for re-circulating stolen goods, including jewelry, antiques, and works of art, through fragmentation, smelting, and other forms of destruction or transformation. Such processes reduce or even destroy the commercial or cultural value of the material, but they also increase the difficulties for police and other authorities to trace the material and bring criminals to justice. They can be used for transporting and transferring valuables outside regular channels and thus finance war, civil conflicts, terrorism, and other forms of dangerous crime. They can be used to hide criminal assets and thus make recovery more difficult. They can be used for tax evasion through smuggling, hiding of assets, etc. The full extent or value of criminal activities with precious metals and precious gems has not been fully investigated. It can safely be assumed, however, that the criminal market in these goods is considerable.
Topic:: Globalization, International Law, International Trade and Finance, Treaties and Agreements, and United Nations
Political Geography:: United States

121. The G20 Meetings: No Common Framework, No Consensus

Author:: Michael Pettis
Publication Date:: 05-2009
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:: Participants in the recently completed G20 meeting in London agreed on a number of measures, some substantial and some merely symbolic, but they sidestepped the real issues dividing the major economic powers and, in so doing, failed to address the root causes of the global trade and investment imbalances. This was almost inevitable. China, Europe, and the United States have incompatible conceptual frameworks for understanding the causes of the global financial crisis; furthermore, their conflicting domestic political constraints make agreement on solutions hard to reach. Europeans believe that the root cause of the crisis was excessively deregulated financial systems, and they are skeptical about U.S. and Chinese calls for fiscal expansion, worrying that excessive spending would prolong the imbalances and make the ultimate adjustment more difficult. China also believes that the roots of the crisis lie within the structure of the global financial system, although Beijing insists that it was mainly the reserve status of the U.S. dollar that permitted imbalances to develop to unsustainable levels. China is particularly vulnerable to trade protection and seeks to maintain open markets for its continued export of domestic overcapacity. Like the United States, it is pushing for more aggressive, globally coordinated fiscal expansion. However, because of rigidities in its financial system and development model, its fiscal response to the crisis may exacerbate the difficult global adjustment and may, ironically, increase the chances of trade friction. In a time of contracting demand, the United States controls two-thirds of the most valuable resource in the world: net demand. Consequently, it is U.S. policies that will determine the pace and direction of the global recovery, along with the institutional framework that will govern trade and investment relationships for decades to come. The crisis puts the United States more firmly at the center of the emerging world order than ever. So far, the United States has not understood the need to consider the global outcomes of its recovery policies. Until the major powers can reach consensus about the roots of the imbalance and cooperate on policies to promote recovery, it is likely that the world economy will get worse before it gets better. The United States will drive the recovery process, but in order to do so effectively it will need to recognize its position of strength and negotiate the appropriate agreements with other major powers, especially China, on the pace and nature of the adjustment.
Topic:: Economics, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, and Monetary Policy
Political Geography:: United States, China, Europe, and London

122. The Alien Tort Statute of 1789: Time for a Fresh Look

Author:: Gary Clyde Hufbauer
Publication Date:: 05-2009
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:: In 2007 the Second Circuit Court of Appeals held that US companies that had done business with apartheid South Africa could be found liable for monetary damages under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) of 1789 (Khulumani v. Barclay Nat. Bank Ltd., 504 F.3d 254 [2d Cir. 2007]). Liability arises, the Second Circuit declared, from their possible connections with human rights violations committed by South Africa during the apartheid era. Firms named in the suit include Bank of America, IBM, Coca-Cola, and General Motors. The governments of the United Kingdom, Germany, and Switzerland all opposed the lawsuit, as did the government of South Africa, which argued that the suit ran counter to its policy of reconciliation. The Bush administration also opposed the suit, but the Second Circuit rejected the argument that the cases could be dismissed for foreign policy reasons.
Topic:: Apartheid, Human Rights, International Law, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: Africa, United States, United Kingdom, America, South Africa, and Germany

123. US Taxation of Multinational Corporations: What Makes Sense, What Doesn't

Author:: Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Jisun Kim
Publication Date:: 03-2009
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:: As the administration and Congress catch their breath from rescuing the economy, their thoughts are quickly turning to other issues—including the structure of the US tax system. Everyone agrees that the US tax system inflicts enormous complexity on the American public. But reform is never easy. Who pays the tax burden ranks among the most contentious issues that Congress has historically faced, and this time around will be no different.
Topic:: Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:: United States

124. U.S.-Japan-India Strategic Dialogue December 4 – December 6, 2009

Publication Date:: 12-2009
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Japan Institute Of International Affairs (JIIA)
Abstract:: Recognizing the strategic potential for expanding cooperation on regional and global challenges and the shared values among the United States, Japan and India, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), and the Japan Institute for International Affairs (JIIA) initiated the U.S.-Japan-India Strategic Dialogue in June 2006.
Topic:: Globalization, Industrial Policy, International Trade and Finance, Regional Cooperation, and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:: United States, Japan, and India

125. Breaking the Suicide Pact: U.S.–China Cooperation on Climate Change

Author:: William Chandler
Publication Date:: 03-2008
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:: The United States and China seemingly remain locked in a climate suicide pact, each arguing the other is the reason for inaction. U.S.–China climate cooperation is urgently needed to avert climate disaster. The current situation of the energy sectors in the United States and China offers a solution. China and the United States can set and cooperate to achieve national goals and implement enforceable measures. If this U.S.– China policy experiment works, China and the United States could develop packages of policies and measures, test them for efficacy, correct them, and share them with other countries.
Topic:: Energy Policy, Environment, Industrial Policy, International Trade and Finance, and Markets
Political Geography:: United States, China, and Asia

126. An EU-Korea Free Trade Area: Playing Catch-Up or Taking the Lead?

Author:: Jim Rollo
Publication Date:: 05-2008
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Both Korea and the EU are pursuing free trade areas (FTAs) aggressively as part of their trade policy strategies. Korea is much further down the road. There are strong incentives on both sides to conclude an agreement. However, specific issues and EU's desire to do at least as well as, and preferably better than, the Korea–US FTA may delay or even preclude success. Korea and the EU are not principal suppliers to each other, so while an agreement is predicted to be economically favourable to both sides, the effects are not expected to be very large. Korea has the higher barriers and is expected to make the bigger economic gains. There are sensitive sectors on both sides, notably automobiles for the EU and services and processed foods for Korea. Both sides have important agricultural constituencies to protect. Korea's key role in the East Asian production system suggests that rules of origin could be an area of particular difficulty in the negotiation.
Topic:: Agriculture and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States, Europe, East Asia, Asia, and South Korea

127. Should central banks target stock prices?

Author:: Paul De Grauwe
Publication Date:: 09-2008
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
Abstract:: The question of whether central banks should react to stock price developments has been hotly debated. This discussion has intensified since the eruption of the credit crisis. According to some analysts, including myself, the failure of the US Federal Reserve under Alan Greenspan to react to the bubbles in the stock and housing markets helps to explain the financial excesses and the subsequent crisis.
Topic:: Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Monetary Policy
Political Geography:: United States

128. Square pegs in round holes: How the Farm Bill squanders chances for a pro-development trade deal

Publication Date:: 07-2008
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:: When trade ministers from 35 countries gather in Geneva at the World Trade Organization [WTO] for what is being billed yet again as a last-ditch attempt to forge a Doha trade deal, they will be forced to meet an unwelcome guest: the 2008 US Farm Bill. With a host of newly bolstered subsidies that will hurt farmers in developing countries, as well as higher farm payment rates, squeezing the new Farm Bill into the 'boxes' defined under existing WTO obligations will be a remarkable trick. That speaks poorly about the willingness of the US to accept new disciplines on agricultural subsidies, and demonstrates that the US Congress is unwilling - thus far - to take the necessary steps for a new trade agreement that would prioritize development.
Topic:: Agriculture, International Organization, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and World Trade Organization
Political Geography:: Geneva and United States

129. China's Economic Rise -- Fact and Fiction

Author:: Albert Keidel
Publication Date:: 07-2008
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:: China's economy will surpass that of the United States by 2035 and be twice its size by midcentury, a new report by Albert Keidel concludes. China's rapid growth is driven by domestic demand—not exports—and will sustain high single-digit growth rates well into this century. In China's Economic Rise—Fact and Fiction, Keidel examines China's likely economic trajectory and its implications for global commercial, institutional, and military leadership.
Topic:: Economics, Globalization, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States, China, and Asia

130. Pricing Farmers out of Cotton: The costs of World Bank reforms in Mali

Publication Date:: 03-2007
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:: Mali is one of the world's poorest countries, with over two-thirds of the population – mostly in rural areas – living on less than a dollar a day. Mali is also the second largest cotton producer in sub-Saharan Africa after Burkina Faso. Cotton production is generally heralded as a success story in much of West and Central Africa, providing a critical development strategy for poor African countries such as Mali and enabling both governments and farm households to access income. The World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the wider donor community have also recognised the importance of cotton in reducing poverty and supporting the country's economy. However, in recent years, much of this success has been undermined by depressed and volatile cotton prices, partly as the result of unchecked US subsidies, and the downward trend of commodity prices.
Topic:: Agriculture, International Organization, International Trade and Finance, Treaties and Agreements, and World Trade Organization
Political Geography:: Africa, United States, and Mali

131. Signing Away The Future: How trade and investment agreements between rich and poor countries undermine development

Publication Date:: 03-2007
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:: The quiet advance of trade and investment agreements between rich and poor countries threatens to deny developing countries a favourable foothold in the global economy. Powerful countries, led by the USA and the European Union (EU), are pursuing regional and bilateral free trade agreements with unprecedented vigour. This is happening without the fanfare of global summitry and international press coverage. Around 25 developing countries have now signed free trade agreements with developed countries, and more than 100 are engaged in negotiations. An average of two bilateral investment treaties are signed every week. Virtually no country, however poor, has been left out.
Topic:: Emerging Markets and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States and Europe

132. The Case for Exchange Rate Flexibility in Oil-Exporting Economies

Author:: Brad Setser
Publication Date:: 11-2007
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:: Brad Setser is a fellow at the Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He previously worked as a senior economist at RGEMonitor, an online financial information service. He served in the US Treasury Department from 1997 to 2001, where he concluded his tenure as the acting director of the Office of International Monetary and Financial Policy, and spent 2002 as a visiting scholar at the International Monetary Fund. He is the coauthor of Bailouts or Bail-ins? Responding to Financial Crises in Emerging Economies (Institute for International Economics, 2004) with Nouriel Roubini.
Topic:: Economics, Foreign Exchange, International Trade and Finance, and Oil
Political Geography:: United States

133. China and the Depreciating U.S. Dollar

Author:: Richard C. K. Burdekin
Publication Date:: 01-2006
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: East-West Center
Abstract:: Over the past five years, U.S. exports to China have been dwarfed by imports from that country, with the resulting trade deficit igniting a bout of China bashing reminiscent of the Japan bashing of the 1980s. A major culprit in the trade imbalance, according to many U.S. analysts and policymakers, is China's currency: the renminbi, they say, is too cheap relative to the dollar. Some are calling for high tariffs on Chinese goods or for further exchange-rate adjustment that would revalue the renminbi significantly upward, making Chinese goods less competitive. But with just 10.4 percent of total U.S. trade attributed to China in the first half of 2005, it is unrealistic that any renminbi exchange-rate adjustment could rein in the burgeoning U.S. trade deficit. And if the adjustment were drastic the United States could be the big loser: driving China out of the market for U.S. treasuries would most likely have calamitous consequences, not only for the dollar but for U.S. credit markets and for the U.S. economy in general.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States, Asia, and North America

134. Remittances: Latin America's Faulty Lifeline

Author:: Catherine Elton
Publication Date:: 03-2006
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: MIT Center for International Studies
Abstract:: In recent years, the money that migrants send back to their native countries has become a hot topic in international development circles. Multilateral banks, the governments of migrant-sending nations, the U.S. Government, and international development organizations laud the potential that remittances have to reduce poverty and promote development. Remittances are being exalted as “the new development finance,” and a ticket to “high human development,” while the migrants who send them are hailed as heroes back home. But the current remittance euphoria is both overblown and troubling when considered in a larger context of international development.
Topic:: International Relations, Economics, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States and South America

135. Free Trade Agreements: The Quiet Economic Track of U.S. Middle East Policy

Author:: Jonathan Powell
Publication Date:: 02-2006
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:: In January, the United States halted talks on free trade with Egypt to protest the Egyptian government's imprisonment of Ayman Nour, a leading opposition figure who challenged President Hosni Mubarak in September 2005 presidential elections. Washington made no formal announcement, perhaps hoping to avoid open confrontation with Cairo, and in doing so missed an opportunity to highlight its growing success in negotiating free trade agreements (FTAs) with U.S. allies in the region.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States, Washington, Middle East, and Egypt

136. Can Doha Still Deliver on the Development Agenda?

Author:: Kimberly Elliott
Publication Date:: 06-2006
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:: The Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations, so named because it was launched in the Qatari capital, is in deep trouble. Negotiators have yet to meet any of the interim deadlines for completing the talks, and they missed another at the end of April 2006. While it is still possible to finish the round by early 2007, the odds are diminishing by the day, and this deadline matters more than most. Trade promotion authority (TPA) in the United States will expire in June 2007, and if the round does not make significant progress before then, TPA might not be renewed, and the round would likely drag on for several more years.
Topic:: Economics, International Organization, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
Political Geography:: United States

137. Oxfam Publishing: No Soft Landing: As China opens its markets, US subsidies are making life hard for cotton farmers

Author:: Phoenix Leung Pui Fung
Publication Date:: 12-2005
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:: Cotton is an important crop for some of the poorest areas of China, and millions of cotton farmers depend on it for their livelihoods. Cotton's high economic returns have helped, and continue to help, bring many farmers in the poor western provinces of Gansu and Xinjiang out of poverty. Cotton production is not only essential to the development of China's textile industry; it is also a labour-intensive crop that demands a large workforce in rural areas. It has thus contributed to easing the pressures of rural underdevelopment in China, at a time when the country is faced with seriously high levels of surplus labour and lack of development potential in rural areas.
Topic:: Globalization and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States, China, and Asia

138. A Currency Basket for East Asia, Not Just China

Author:: John Williamson
Publication Date:: 08-2005
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:: China recently announced that it is adopting a basket of currencies as the peg for its exchange rate instead of the US dollar. This announcement raises questions of how such a system works, whether other East Asian countries would be advised to follow China in adopting a basket numeraire, and whether it would be advantageous to these countries if they were all to adopt the same basket. This brief answers these questions.
Topic:: Economics, International Cooperation, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States, Israel, East Asia, and Asia

139. Germany and the Future of the Transatlantic Economy

Author:: Jan Neutze and Philipa Tucker
Publication Date:: 08-2005
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Atlantic Council
Abstract:: A senior delegation from the Atlantic Council of the United States, led by W. Bowman Cutter and Paula Stern, visited key government, parliamentary, and private sector stakeholders in Frankfurt, Berlin, and Brussels in spring 2005. The delegation presented the findings of the Atlantic Council report, "The Transatlantic Economy in 2020: A Partnership for the Future?" to numerous business, government, and think tank audiences. This report summarizes the delegation's discussions.
Topic:: Development, Economics, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States, Europe, Germany, and Berlin

140. Can America Rebuild the Crumbling State of U.S.-Asia Relations?

Author:: Kishore Mahbubani
Publication Date:: 03-2005
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:: Ambassador Mahbubani's address looked at previous American actions that built "reservoirs of good will" that ultimately assisted America in its ideological victory in the Cold War, especially in Asia: its sharing of the "American dream" with the world; its openness to foreign students; the international order built by the United States after 1945; and, finally, the stabilizing effects of its military presence in East Asia. However, the end of the Cold War has brought changes, and the gulf between America's self-perception and the way it is seen in the Islamic world, and China in particular, demonstrate the dwindling of those good will reservoirs.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, Emerging Markets, International Trade and Finance, and Bilateral Relations
Political Geography:: United States, China, America, and East Asia

141. Financial Access for Immigrants: Learning from Diverse Perspectives

Author:: Audrey Singer and Anna Paulson
Publication Date:: 10-2004
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Brookings Institution
Abstract:: Policymakers and academics are now catching up to financial institutions in their desire to understand how and why immigrants use U.S. financial markets. “Financial Access for Immigrants: Learning from Diverse Perspectives,” a conference co-sponsored by the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program formerly the Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy) and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, was held at the Chicago Fed on April 15-16, 2004. It included presentations from scholars and practitioners who discussed recent research on the financial practices of immigrants as well as the practical experiences of for-profit and nonprofit institutions working to provide financial services to the immigrant community.
Topic:: Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Migration
Political Geography:: United States and Chicago

142. The Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement: a preliminary assessment

Author:: Mark P Thirlwell
Publication Date:: 02-2004
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Lowy Institute for International Policy
Abstract:: On 8 February Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile concluded an agreed text for an Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement. This Issues Brief provides a preliminary assessment of the agreement, based on the limited information now available.
Topic:: Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:: United States, Australia, and Australia/Pacific

143. Senator Kerry on Corporate Tax Reform: Right Diagnosis, Wrong Prescription

Author:: Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Paul Grieco
Publication Date:: 04-2004
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:: Senator John Kerry has proposed a major overhaul in corporate taxation, with the goal of persuading multinational companies (MNCs) to employ more workers at home and fewer abroad. Kerry has correctly emphasized that domestic production is often taxed at a higher rate than production abroad, but his prescriptions will not boost US jobs.
Topic:: Development, Globalization, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States, South America, Central America, Caribbean, and North America

144. The Transatlantic Economy in 2020: A Partnership for the Future?

Author:: Frances G. Burwell, W. Bowman Cutter, Paula Stern, and Peter S. Rashish
Publication Date:: 11-2004
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Atlantic Council
Abstract:: The United States and the European Union maintain the world's largest and most significant economic relationship, which in turn is a foundation supporting the transatlantic political partnership. By some estimates, the transatlantic economy — including two-way trade and foreign affiliate sales — totals $2.5 trillion and is responsible for 14 million jobs in the United States and Europe. It is not just the scale of the transactions, however; the transatlantic economy is deeply interconnected through impressive levels of foreign direct investment in both directions. Together, the United States and the EU have been key players in managing the global economy through the World Trade Organization, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund. They have been responsible for the major accomplishments in international trade liberalization of the last 40 years, and have spurred the adoption of global standards in a wide range of sectors.
Topic:: Economics, International Cooperation, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States and Europe

145. Economic survey of Canada, 2003

Publication Date:: 09-2003
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:: Canada's economy has done comparatively well over the past two years, demonstrating a noticeably improved resilience to unfavourable shocks. Over the medium term the economy is poised to achieve growth rates that compare favourably with past performance, but that will not be enough to eliminate the per capita income gap with the United States. The fundamental challenge is to make Canada an even more attractive place to live, work and invest. While past reforms have begun to pay off, there is still unfinished business. To boost the employment rate further the government should reduce disincentive effects arising from the tax and benefit systems by, for example, making greater use of in-work benefits and reintroducing experience rating of Employment Insurance users. Faster productivity gains are more likely to be achieved in an economic environment conducive to innovation. A key to greater dynamism is strengthening competition by eliminating remaining foreign ownership limits and barriers to internal and external trade and continuing electricity deregulation. Investing in skills should also remain a priority, with a particular emphasis on adult education. The nation has benefited by importing human capital from abroad through immigration but needs to intensify its efforts to remove the obstacles that prevent immigrants from having their skills fully utilised in the labour market. Having introduced a sound fiscal framework and reformed its public pension system Canada is in a better position than most other countries in facing ageing-related fiscal challenges, but the trend rise in health-care costs remains a risk. With the recent budget the government chose to address the short-term needs of the existing system. But, ultimately, ways to control the rise in budgetary costs - whether through incentives to raise efficiency or through cost sharing - will need to be explored, otherwise the resources needed to finance the future burden should be set aside in advance, for example by setting a bolder debt reduction target. Finally, environmental sustainability will be enhanced with least cost to the economy if the ambitious greenhouse gas emissions reduction is achieved through market-oriented instruments rather than command and control measures or voluntary agreements.
Topic:: Diplomacy, Economics, International Organization, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
Political Geography:: United States and Canada

146. Financial Conglomerates: The Future of Finance?

Author:: Robert Litan and Richard Herring
Publication Date:: 04-2003
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Brookings Institution
Abstract:: In 1999, after nearly twenty years of debate, the U.S. Congress finally passed legislation permitting bank affiliations with all sorts of other financial enterprises, and vice versa. In this step, the United States joined many other countries — especially in Europe and, more recently, Japan — in allowing the operation of financial conglomerates. But are financial conglomerates the wave of the future in finance? And if so, how are they to be regulated? These were the two central questions addressed in the fifth annual conference of the Brookings-Wharton Papers on Financial Services, an annual volume published by the Brookings Institution Press. The conference, held in October 2002 in Washington, D.C., convened financial services experts from around the world. The papers presented at the conference suggest, generally, that while the future may see more financial conglomerate activity than it has in the past, there still will be a role for specialist, or "monoline" financial companies. As for regulation, there is no settled model: some nations will pursue consolidated supervision, with authority over entire conglomerates vested in a single authority (often the central bank), while others will still regulate the pieces of diversified financial enterprises along structural lines.
Topic:: Economics, Government, Industrial Policy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States, Europe, and Washington

147. Reauthorize or Retire the Overseas Private Investment Corporation?

Author:: Ian Vásquez and John Welborn
Publication Date:: 09-2003
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: The Overseas Private Investment Corporation is a government agency that provides loans and investment insurance to U.S. companies doing business around the world. Its four-year, renewable charter will expire in September 2003. Proponents of OPIC claim that the agency helps the U.S. economy and promotes economic development abroad.
Topic:: Economics, International Political Economy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

148. Globalization of IT Services and White Collar Jobs: The Next Wave of Productivity Growth

Author:: Catherine L. Mann
Publication Date:: 12-2003
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:: Businesses throughout the US economy continue to transform even after the technology boom has faded. The key sources of this continuing transformation are investment in the information technology (IT) package (hardware, software, and business-service applications) and reorientation of business activities and processes to use both information and technology effectively.
Topic:: Economics, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:: United States

149. Next Move in Steel: Revocation or Retaliation?

Author:: Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Ben Goodrich
Publication Date:: 10-2003
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:: In May 2003, the World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute panel ruled that US steel safeguards imposed in March 2002 are illegal. The WTO Appellate Body is all but certain to confirm the panel's judgment, probably by December 2003. Then the Bush administration will face an important choice. It can keep the safeguards in place, pleasing steel producers and important constituencies in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. However, doing so would further anger steel users, who have probably lost more business and jobs as a direct consequence of the safeguards than steel producers have gained. Maintaining the safeguards would also send a signal to the world's trading nations that the United States is not prepared to endure the political cost of eliminating steel protection. Furthermore, the administration would run the risk that, in the middle of a presidential election season, foreign countries will exercise their rights under the WTO to retaliate.
Topic:: Government and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia

150. More Pain, More Gain: Politics and Economics of Eliminating Tariffs

Author:: Gary Hufbauer and Ben Goodrich
Publication Date:: 06-2003
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:: A good proposal to eliminate tariffs must take into account both the pain and gain that developing countries are likely to experience. The authors take the measure of these costs and benefits and urge rich countries to maximize the benefits to developing countries while giving them ample time to accept, and adjust to, the changes that trade liberalization will require. But trade liberalization should not stop with tariff proposals. The United States and other industrial countries should generously reduce subsidies to farmers and eliminate nontariff barriers on agricultural imports. The United States should offer more concessions on services trade, particularly in its allowances for temporary foreign workers. Unless rich countries put more on the table, a WTO agreement to eliminate tariff barriers may be postponed for years.
Topic:: Economics, International Trade and Finance, Political Economy, and Third World
Political Geography:: United States

151. Rules Against Earnings Stripping: Wrong Answer to Corporate Inversions

Author:: Gary Hufbauer and Ariel Assa
Publication Date:: 05-2003
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:: The tax-driven expatriation of US corporations is a troubling phenomenon. In a “corporate inversion,” a new foreign corporation, typically located in a low-tax or no-tax country, replaces the existing US parent corporation of a multinational enterprise (MNE). The US corporation then becomes a subsidiary of the new foreign parent. Since the US tax treatment of an MNE operating in the United States is significantly less favorable when the top-tier parent corporation is a domestic rather than a foreign corporation, the inversion transaction averts a substantial amount of US tax. Inversions have attracted adverse attention from tax specialists, media, the US Treasury Department, and Congress. In the wake of September 11, it seemed downright unpatriotic for US firms to invert as a way of skimping on their tax payments.
Topic:: Economics, Government, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

152. The Strategic Importance of US-Korea Economic Relations

Author:: Marcus Noland
Publication Date:: 05-2003
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:: Despite the passage of 50 years since an armistice ended military hostilities, the Korean peninsula remains divided, a Cold War vestige that seemingly has been unaffected by the evolution that has occurred elsewhere. If anything, US confrontation with North Korea—a charter member of its “axis of evil”—has intensified in recent years. Yet today, increasing numbers of South Koreans, accustomed to living for decades in the shadows of the North's forward-deployed artillery, do not regard the North as a serious threat. Growing prosperity and confidence in the South, in marked contrast to the North's isolation and penury, have transformed fear and loathing into pity and forbearance. Instead, it is the United States, an ocean away, that regards the North and its nuclear weapons program with alarm. As the United States has focused on the nuclear program, its ally, South Korea, has observed the North Koreans' nascent economic reforms and heard their talk of conventional forces reduction, and the gap in the two countries' respective assessments of the North Korean threat has widened dangerously, threatening to undermine their alliance.
Topic:: Security and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States, Israel, East Asia, Asia, South Korea, North Korea, and Korea

153. The Impact of Economic Sanctions on US Trade: Andrew Rose's Gravity Model

Author:: Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Barbara Oegg
Publication Date:: 04-2003
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:: With the end of the Cold War, the focus of US foreign policy changed—and so did that of economic sanctions. Partly because of increased cooperation within the UN framework, economic sanctions were imposed so routinely in the early 1990s that scholars called that period the sanctions decade. This proliferation sparked intense debate about the effectiveness of sanctions as a policy tool and moved US sanctions policy to the center of public discourse.
Topic:: Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
Political Geography:: United States

154. Steel Policy: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Author:: Gary C. Hufbauer and Ben Goodrich
Publication Date:: 01-2003
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:: While the US steel industry has been in distress for decades, the “steel crisis” of 1999-2001 was particularly acute. More than 30 steel producing and steel processing firms fell into bankruptcy between 1997 and 2001, and most of the failures occurred after President Bush took office. During his presidential campaign, Bush promised steelworkers that he would not neglect them. As the crisis worsened, the steel industry and the United Steel Workers of America (USWA) pressed the Bush administration to make good on its campaign promise.
Topic:: Government, Industrial Policy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States and America

155. Managing Asia Pacific's Energy Dependence on the Middle East: Is There a Role for Central Asia?

Author:: Kang Wu and Fereidun Fesharaki
Publication Date:: 06-2002
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: East-West Center
Abstract:: The Middle East is Asia Pacific's largest energy supplier, satisfying a demand for oil that must keep pace with the region's continued economic growth. This dependence on the Middle East has caused Asia Pacific to join the United States and other Western nations in the hunt for alternative suppliers. Central Asia, located between the Middle East and Asia Pacific and already an oil and gas exporter, is an attractive possibility. With energy production projected to rise rapidly over the next decade, Central Asia is poised to become a major player in the world energy market. But the land-locked region's options for transporting oil and gas to Asia Pacific markets are limited and problematic. Passage via pipeline east through China presents construction challenges; south through Iran, or through India and Pakistan via Afghanistan, is fraught with political difficulties. Not until geopolitics become more favorable to the south-bound options, or technologies make the China route possible, will Asia Pacific be able to tap the energy resources of Central Asia.
Topic:: Security and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: Pakistan, Afghanistan, United States, China, Iran, Middle East, and Asia

156. China — Securities Opening

Publication Date:: 06-2002
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: The China Securities Regulatory Commission issued rules on June 3 outlining the participation of foreign firms in fund management and securities business. Issued earlier than expected, the rules re-state concessions made in the trade and investment agreement China signed with the United States in November 1999. Modernisation and liberalisation of the sector is a prerequisite to channelling more of China's 1 trillion dollars of private savings to equity investment.
Topic:: Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
Political Geography:: United States and China

157. International — Auto Consolidation

Publication Date:: 06-2002
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: Fiat announced a sharp fall in May car sales in Italy on June 5 and its debt is under review for a possible ratings downgrade. The world's sixth-largest car maker is one of many manufacturers facing difficult profitability conditions. Global sales volumes in the industry have remained high, but profits have not followed suit. Mergers, the most rational panacea, are confounded by bitter experience.
Topic:: Economics, Industrial Policy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States and Europe

158. International — Weak Dollar

Publication Date:: 05-2002
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: This week's piece is on the international implications of a weaker US dollar. Seventeen weeks of dollar weakness raise the questions of whether the dollar is on a sustained path of decline, and what the implications are internationally. The 6% nominal effective decline in the dollar since January 31 might be sustained due to US financial and macroeconomic factors. Overall, the effect would be positive for Europe and the United States, and might encourage domestic demand growth in export-oriented Asian economies.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States and Europe

159. International — Global Economy

Publication Date:: 04-2002
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: A textbook approach to economic growth suggests the world is in for a difficult period. However, there are reasons to believe that the global economy will defy convention. The global economy will continue to support US external imbalances for the medium term, barring marked deterioration in certain areas of US weakness. However, European integration and Asian development could provide alternative sources of global demand, relieving the current imbalance of global dependence on the US economy.
Topic:: Economics, International Political Economy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States and Europe

160. International — Steel Fortress

Publication Date:: 03-2002
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: The United States on March 5 announced tariffs on the vast majority of US steel imports. Despite rumours that he would impose moderate duties, US President Bush levied 30% tariffs on the types of steel accounting for about three-quarters of steel imports. Given that these duties follow hundreds of anti-dumping duties imposed on steel products over the past three years, the decision means that virtually no foreign steel will be sold in the United States. It will also have a host of unforeseen international consequences.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Economics, International Political Economy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

161. International — Market Screening

Publication Date:: 02-2002
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: The largest US-based pension fund last week listed 13 emerging markets that its fund managers will be allowed to invest in. Investment firms appointed by the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) will actively manage up to one billion dollars in equity investments in 13 countries and unwind CalPERS' equity positions in markets outside them. As a large institutional investor, CalPERS' decisions have an important signalling role for a variety of institutional funds.
Topic:: Economics, Government, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
Political Geography:: United States

162. United States/European Union — WTO Sanctions

Publication Date:: 02-2002
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: US trade officials said last week that EU estimates of damages arising from US export subsidies were exaggerated. EU trade officials have asked the WTO to approve 4 billion dollars worth of trade sanctions against the United States, after the latter lost an appeal before the WTO on the tax treatment of foreign-source income — judged to be illegal export subsidies. Washington must amend its tax laws or face the prospect of retaliatory trade restrictions.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States, Europe, and Washington

163. United States — Productivity Surprise

Publication Date:: 02-2002
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: The government announced yesterday that productivity increased at a 3.5% annual rate in the fourth quarter of 2001. The figure, previously available in its component form, has been interpreted as evidence of underlying improvement in productivity in the post-1995 period. Sustainability of productivity growth determines the reliability of fiscal forecasts, growth, inflation and unemployment.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

164. New Role in U.S. Trade Policy

Author:: John Audley
Publication Date:: 09-2002
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:: On a hot day in August, President George W. Bush signed into law the Trade Act of 2002. Months of debate between the administration and members of Congress, their constituencies, and other governments were over; with the stroke of his pen President Bush became the first president in almost a decade to enjoy the benefits of trade promotion authority (TPA).
Topic:: Economics, Environment, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
Political Geography:: United States

165. Support the Ex-Im Bank: It Has Work to Do!

Author:: Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Ben Goodrich
Publication Date:: 05-2002
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:: The US Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank is again at the center of controversy, as Congress debates the terms for its charter renewal. This policy brief critiques provisions of the House and Senate versions of the reauthorization bill and summarizes three justifications for Congress giving adequate support to the Ex-Im Bank. Box 1 provides a capsule description of the Ex-Im Bank's operations.
Topic:: Economics, Government, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

166. International — IMF Crisis Decisions

Publication Date:: 11-2001
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: The IMF's major shareholders have shown little willingness to provide new funds to Argentina. In deferring further assistance, the United States and other G7 shareholders have set limits on the international financial community's role in resolving a major emerging market financial crisis. The slowing global economy could provide an early test of these limits as it exposes weaknesses in other emerging markets — particularly those with larger geopolitical profiles than Argentina. Argentina's predicament highlights the Fund's paradox in wanting, on the one hand, to facilitate orderly resolution of crises (and prevent calamitous social impacts) and, on the other hand, to encourage markets to appropriately price risk by proving that non-optimal outcomes are possible. The risk of such outcomes is the basis upon which investors demand higher premiums from emerging market borrowers.
Topic:: International Organization, International Political Economy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States and Argentina

167. United States — Trade Adjustment Assistance

Publication Date:: 08-2001
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: This piece focuses on the performance of and prospects for Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) programmes. The number of employees and employers who have benefited from programmes designed to counter the effects of certain trade agreements has expanded dramatically during the past few years. Such trade adjustment assistance is likely to be included in future legislation implementing new WTO and other trade agreements, largely to garner support for further trade liberalisation.
Topic:: International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

168. Taking APEC Seriously

Author:: Edward J Lincoln
Publication Date:: 12-2001
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Brookings Institution
Abstract:: The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) has been a modestly useful government-to-government forum that has brought together nations from around the Pacific Rim since its inception in 1989. Sadly, hopes that APEC would provide a valuable arena in which to pursue the goal of open markets for trade and investment have fizzled. As the trade agenda has weakened, interest in APEC around the region has waned, and some nations have turned their attention to other regional or bilateral agendas.
Topic:: International Cooperation and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States and Asia

169. Changing Terms of Trade: Managing the New Transatlantic Economy

Author:: David L. Aaron and Donald L. Guertin
Publication Date:: 04-2001
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Atlantic Council
Abstract:: The economic relationship between the United States and the European Union (EU) is in the midst of a significant transition. In the past, the dominant element of that relationship was trade. This was only natural, given their large share of the global trading system: the United States generates 19 percent of world trade, and the European Union 20 percent. Moreover, the United States is the EU's largest trading partner, while the EU is the single largest importer into the United States and the second largest market for U.S. exports. But in recent years, several new elements have become more prominent in the transatlantic economic relationship, bringing with them both challenges and opportunities.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States and Europe

170. U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services - As of January 20, 2000

Publication Date:: 01-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: The Nation's international deficit in goods and services increased to $26.5 billion in November, from $25.6 billion (revised) in October, as imports increased more than exports.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

171. The Right Role for the IMF in Development

Author:: Nancy Birdsall, John W. Sewell, and Kevin Morrison
Publication Date:: 05-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Overseas Development Council
Abstract:: Horst Köhler faces immense challenges as the new Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But no challenge is more crucial than making sure the IMF plays the right role in developing countries. Too often, it is not playing that role now. The IMF's activities in the developing world have grown radically. Today, much of its work goes beyond macroeconomic issues and crisis prevention and management, into deeper structural issues. And as a major provider of long-term development finance, it is significantly involved in efforts to reduce poverty. But the IMF lacks expertise in the wide-ranging policy and institutional complexities of development and poverty reduction. Its expertise lies in macroeconomic policy and restoring stability amid financial crises. Macroeconomics is the same for poor and rich countries alike, as IMF First Deputy Managing Director Stanley Fischer has said. But much of what the IMF is involved in now is not macroeconomics. The Fund should focus on: short-term liquidity lending to all countries hit by macroeconomic crises; advising through policy dialogue; and collecting, assessing, and distributing information on countries with regard to macroeconomic policy and financial markets. While poor countries need access to the Fund's short-term lending and macroeconomic advice, the IMF should leave long-term development lending to the World Bank and to other lenders and donors expert in poverty reduction.
Topic:: Environment, International Organization, International Trade and Finance, and International Monetary Fund
Political Geography:: United States

172. Reviewing U.S.-Nigeria Relations: New Links to Reinforce Democracy

Author:: Princeton Lyman and Linda Cotton
Publication Date:: 03-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Overseas Development Council
Abstract:: Emerging from 15 years of military rule, the Republic of Nigeria is struggling to build a stable, peaceful democratic nation from its 200 ethnic groups divided among 36 states. In May 1999, retired General Olusegun Obasanjo was elected President-a repeat performance of his earlier role as catalyst for democratic change. In 1979, Obasanjo presided over the only transition to civilian rule until now. His democratic instincts won him three years in jail under former President Sani Abacha's brutally repressive military regime.
Topic:: Environment, International Organization, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: Africa, United States, and Nigeria

173. CIAO: US/China — Trade Relations

Author:: Caspar Fithin
Publication Date:: 10-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky and China's Prime Minister Zhu Rongji this month held talks in Beijing to discuss China's accession to the WTO. Beyond opening up commercial opportunities to US firms, the award of permanent normal trade relations status to China, and its prospective accession to the WTO, should in theory add predictability to the bilateral trade relationship.
Topic:: International Relations, International Organization, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States, China, and Beijing

174. United States — High-Tech Exports

Author:: Caspar Fithin
Publication Date:: 08-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: The White House has loosened export restrictions in a number of high-technology sectors, setting a trend which is likely to be followed by the next administration. Tight export controls on high-tech products have become an expensive luxury that the United States can no longer afford. The liberalisation of remaining controls is therefore set to continue, whatever the partisan composition of the next Congress and the next administration.
Topic:: International Trade and Finance and Science and Technology
Political Geography:: United States

175. International — WTO Reform

Author:: Oxford Analytica
Publication Date:: 05-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: WTO members are unlikely to reach agreement on radical changes, at least in the short term. At most they may conclude an accord which reaffirms both the principle of consensus and the need for Green Room meetings, and which gives the director-general a role (possibly informal) in ensuring that efficiency is balanced by other considerations. However, an agreement on institutional changes will have little impact on prospects for launching a new trade round. Such prospects will continue to depend on whether members can develop an agenda that all believe will serve their national interests.
Topic:: International Organization, International Trade and Finance, and World Trade Organization
Political Geography:: United States

176. OECD — Inflation Prospects

Author:: Oxford Analytica
Publication Date:: 05-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: Inflation has begun to accelerate throughout the OECD-area, mainly as a result of higher oil prices. The increase comes from a low base and official forecasts suggest that the price outlook is generally benign. However, a further tightening of monetary policy in order to contain inflation at these low levels is now probably the most important threat to asset market valuations and the continued expansion of the global economy. Product market liberalisation, globalisation and the advent of the internet have brought real and lasting changes in pricing behaviour that will not disappear with a global upturn. These trends have been reinforced by improvements in the operation, credibility and effectiveness of national monetary policies. Nevertheless, historical experience suggests that inflationary pressures could accelerate rapidly as the major economies enter their first period of coincident growth since 1988-90. The result is likely to be tighter monetary policy rather than permanently higher inflation and long-term interest rates.
Topic:: Economics, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:: United States and Canada

177. International: Techno-Stock Troubles

Author:: Oxford Analytica
Publication Date:: 06-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: The current bubble in 'technology stocks' has led to official concern about over-enthusiasm by investors and the banking consequences of a sudden price collapse. The first signs of the long awaited shift emerged last week, as investors shifted from fashionable technology, media and telecoms (TMT) stock back into traditional 'old economy' blue chips. Capital flooding in from Europe and Japan to the United States has been attracted to booming markets led mostly by these stocks. The rest of the market (misleadingly known as the 'old economy') has risen comparatively little.
Topic:: Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:: United States, Japan, and Europe

178. Permanent Normal Trade Relations for China

Author:: Nicholas R. Lardy
Publication Date:: 05-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Brookings Institution
Abstract:: In what has been described as its most important vote this year, the U.S. Congress will soon decide whether to provide permanent normal trade relations to China. A vote is required because, after 14 years of negotiations, China is poised to enter the World Trade Organization (WTO). Assuming China concludes its bilateral negotiations with the European Union by June or July, entry is likely before the end of the year. The cornerstone principle of the World Trade Organization is that members provide each other unconditional Most Favored Nation trade status, now called Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) in U.S. trade law. Current U.S. law precludes granting PNTR to China; as a result President Clinton has asked Congress to amend the law. A negative vote would have no bearing on China's entry into the World Trade Organization, but it would mean that U.S. companies would not benefit from the most important commitments China has made to become a member. Gaining the full range of benefits is particularly important in light of the large and growing deficit the United States faces in its trade with China (Figure 1). A positive vote would give U.S. companies the same advantages that would accrue to companies from Europe, Japan, and all other WTO member states when China enters the World Trade Organization. It would also provide an important boost to China's leadership, that is taking significant economic and political risks in order to meet the demands of the international community for substantial additional economic reforms as a condition for its WTO membership. A positive vote would strengthen bilateral economic relations more generally. That may help place a floor on the broader bilateral relationship, which continues to face critical challenges on security issues, stemming largely from tensions between China and Taiwan, and on human rights issues.
Topic:: International Relations and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States, China, Europe, and Asia

179. China's Long March to a Market Economy

Author:: Mark A. Groombridge
Publication Date:: 04-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: The U.S. Congress is in the historic position of being able to help pro-reform leaders in China move their country in a market-oriented direction. A vote to grant China permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) status will bolster the position of those leaders in Beijing who are attempting to deepen and broaden the scope of China's two-decade experiment with economic reform. Granting PNTR and China's subsequent accession to the World Trade Organization will benefit, not only the United States and the world trading community, but most directly the citizens of China, millions of whom are still mired in abject poverty.
Topic:: International Relations, Foreign Policy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States, China, Beijing, and Asia

180. U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services - As of December 16, 1999

Publication Date:: 12-1999
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: The Nation's international deficit in goods and services increased to $25.9 billion in October, from $24.2 billion (revised) in September, as exports decreased and imports increased.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

181. U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services - As of November 18, 1999

Publication Date:: 12-1999
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: The Nation's international deficit in goods and services increased to $24.4 billion in September, from $23.5 billion (revised) in August, as exports decreased and imports increased.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

182. U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services - As of October 20, 1999

Publication Date:: 11-1999
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: The Nation's international deficit in goods and services decreased to $24.1 billion in August, from $24.9 billion (revised) in July, as exports increased more than imports.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

183. U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services - As of September 21, 1999

Publication Date:: 09-1999
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: The Nation's international deficit in goods and services increased to $25.2 billion in July, from $24.6 billion (revised) in June, as imports increased more than exports.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

184. U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services - As of August 19, 1999

Publication Date:: 08-1999
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: The Nation's international deficit in goods and services increased to $24.6 billion in June, from $21.2 billion (revised) in May, as imports increased more than exports.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

185. U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services - As of July 20, 1999

Publication Date:: 07-1999
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: The Nation's international deficit in goods and services increased to $21.3 billion in May, from $18.6 billion (revised) in April, as imports increased and exports decreased.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

186. U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services - As of June 17, 1999

Publication Date:: 06-1999
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: The Nation's international deficit in goods and services was $18.9 billion in April, virtually unchanged from March (revised), as exports and imports increased.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

187. U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services - As of April 20, 1999

Publication Date:: 04-1999
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: The Nation's international deficit in goods and services increased to $19.4 billion in February, from $16.8 billion (revised) in January as imports increased and exports decreased.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

188. U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services - As of March 18, 1999

Publication Date:: 03-1999
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: The Nation's international deficit in goods and services increased to $17.0 billion in January, from $14.1 billion (revised) in December as imports increased and exports decreased.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

189. Balance on Current Account - As of December 14, 1999

Publication Date:: 12-1999
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: No abstract is available.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

190. Balance on Current Account - As of September 14, 1999

Publication Date:: 09-1999
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: No abstract is available.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

191. Balance on Current Account - As of June 17, 1999

Publication Date:: 06-1999
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: No abstract is available.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

192. Balance on Current Account - As of March 11, 1999

Publication Date:: 03-1999
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: No abstract is available.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

193. Foreign Direct Investment in the United States: New Investment in 1998

Author:: Mahnaz Fahim-Nader
Publication Date:: 06-1999
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: Last year,outlays by foreign direct investors to acquire or establish businesses in the United States surged to $201.0 billion, 2 1/2 times the previous record of $79.9 billion set in 1996 and almost triple the 1997 level of $69.7 billion ( table 1 and chart 1). The 1998 outlays were boosted by two exceptionally large acquisitions, each of which significantly exceeded the size of any previous single investment. However, even without these two investments, outlays were still about 40 percent higher than those in 1996.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

194. Start the Trade and Labor Dialogue

Author:: David Weiner
Publication Date:: 11-1999
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Overseas Development Council
Abstract:: The debate over trade and labor standards is one of the most divisive in relations between industrial and developing countries. Concern about the impact of trade on workers is undermining support for trade liberalization worldwide.
Topic:: Environment, International Organization, International Trade and Finance, and World Trade Organization
Political Geography:: United States

195. ODC Viewpoint - U.S. Trade Policy: Misreading the Developing World

Author:: David Weiner
Publication Date:: 05-1999
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Overseas Development Council
Abstract:: U.S. trade leadership has suffered from a contentious policy debate that has left President Clinton without new fast-track trade negotiating authority since 1994. Disagreement over the impact of commerce with developing countries on jobs and the environment is at the heart of the trade quarrel, but that quarrel misreads what is happening in developing economies and what is achievable in negotiations with them.
Topic:: Environment, International Organization, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

196. The U.S. Perspective on Globalization

Author:: Stuart Eizenstat
Publication Date:: 04-1999
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Overseas Development Council
Abstract:: The Overseas Development Council was prescient in calling for an international dialogue on globalization last year. It is a particularly important time for a dialogue on the relationship between globalization and development, given new concerns raised by the global financial crisis.
Topic:: Development, Economics, Emerging Markets, Globalization, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

197. The International Financial Architecture

Author:: Jeffrey A. Frankel
Publication Date:: 06-1999
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Brookings Institution
Abstract:: The recent financial crises in many emerging market economies have raised anew questions about the appropriate exchange-rate regime and the use of capital controls as policy instruments. The use of both mechanisms should be tailored to each country's unique circumstances. Fixed exchange-rate mechanisms, such as dollarization (adopting the dollar as legal tender in place of the national currency), are suited to small open economies or those desperate to import monetary stability. Larger economies, such as the European Union (EU) and the United States, should allow their currencies to float. Intermediate regimes that fall between fixed- and floating-rate regimes—such as bands, baskets, and crawls (See Figure 1 for definitions)—are still appropriate for some countries. Certain well-targeted restrictions on the composition of capital flows might be appropriate for some emerging-market countries as temporary measures when inflows are particularly high.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States and Europe

198. The First Weeks of the Eurosystem: An Initial Assessment and a Look Forward

Author:: Karel Lannoo
Publication Date:: 02-1999
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
Abstract:: With the successful launch of the euro, the start of ESCB monetary policy operations and the operation of Target payment system, the previously national interbank bank markets have been integrated at once in a unified euro interbank market. Outstanding public debt was redenominated in euro, trading conventions harmonised and all EMU stock markets have started quoting in euro. This does not, however, bring us at once to a US-style capital market. Euroland remains profoundly different from the US in the weight of the regions and the importance of banks.
Topic:: International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States and Europe

199. Panama Canal Transition: The Final Implementation

Author:: C. Richard Nelson, Jr. Gillespie, Brandon Grove Jr., and David E. McGiffert
Publication Date:: 07-1999
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Atlantic Council
Abstract:: The implications of the transfer of the Panama Canal go well beyond U.S. relations with Panama. This complex transition provides an important lesson for Latin America and the rest of the world on how countries of vastly different size and outlook can work together. The success of this 20 year process lies mainly in first identifying the primary common interest of the United States, Panama and the major canal users: access to an open, safe and efficient canal. Important but secondary concerns, including U.S. military access to facilities in Panama, were addressed during the process but never were allowed to displace the primary interest. By focusing on this clear, compelling key objective, both Panama and the United States were able to accommodate fundamental changes in the political, economic and security context, including several changes in administrations, tough negotiations and even a military confrontation.
Topic:: International Relations, Foreign Policy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States and Latin America

200. Balance on Current Account - As of December 9, 1998

Publication Date:: 12-1998
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: No abstract is available.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

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