The magazine of international economic policy.

From the Summer 2013 issue

The Asian Century: Reality or Hype?

Conventional wisdom has argued that the twenty-first century will be dominated by Asia while America’s global importance declines. Is this journalistic hype, or are we living in the second decade of the Asian Century?

Thirty-five experts offer their predictions, including including Zbigniew Brzezinski, Kent E. Calder, Bernard Connolly, Richard N. Cooper, Jacques de Larosière, Andrew DeWit, James E. Glassman, Carla A. Hills, Gary Clyde Hufbauer, Richard Katz, Chong-Pin Lin, Edward N. Luttwak, Joseph S. Nye, William H. Overholt, Yonghao Pu, William R. Rhodes, Daniel H. Rosen, James R. Schlesinger, Andrew Z. Szamosszegi, Makoto Utsumi, Charles Wolf, Martin Wolf, Friedrich Wu, Gene H. Chang, Paul J. Alapat, Richard Jerram, Dan Sneider, Jeffrey J. Schott, Diana Choyleva, Mark A. DeWeaver, Kishore Mahbubani, John Lee, Shang-Jin Wei, Charles E. Morrison, and Ramin Toloui.



What Ponzi Scheme?

The risks of China's shadow banking system are manageable.

By Chi Lo

Abe’s New Power

Can he keep it? How will he use it?

By Richard Katz

Why Japan Can’t Reform

Only a drastic crisis can transform rhetoric into action.

By Gene Dattel

Asia’s Coming Shift

It is time for some new priorities.

By Peter Petri and Vinod Thomas

The Fed’s Communications Struggle

Forward guidance versus asset purchases in shaping market opinion.

By John M. Berry

The Dangers of Debt: A Layman’s Guide

An excerpt from the noted new book, Balance: The Economics of Great Powers from Ancient Rome to Modern America, by Glenn Hubbard and Tim Kane.

Wanted: A Giant Rethink

Iconoclast economist Paul Craig Roberts has offered his rethink on today’s economic challenges in a new book entitled The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism. TIE asked two distinguished economic thinkers, Dan Ikenson and Michael Hudson, to respond to Roberts’ analysis.

I. Germany Is a Stealth Currency Manipulator

It improves its competitive position and export performance at the expense of its eurozone partners.

By Clyde Prestowitz

II. Germany Is Not Manipulating the Euro

The charge amounts to “old wine in new bottles.”

By Michael Hüther

A Question of Money

And who pays to rescue Europe’s over-indebted banks.

By Hans-Werner Sinn

Merkel’s Deceptive “Don’t Wake the Voters” Election Strategy

And the mystery is why her opponent, Peer Steinbrück, is also hiding the bad news.

By Klaus C. Engelen

A Political Union Skeptic

One of European monetary union’s premier architects argues that centralization per se will not lead to prosperity.

By Otmar Issing

Free Trade Revolution

Beware: Today’s “constitutional convention” will shape the global trade landscape for years to come.

By Simon Lester

Off the News

Is the situation in Europe worse than Japan’s Lost Decade?, American oil production, ugly Chinese facts, and ugly American facts.

From the Founder

The Yellen/Summers Brawl. We may have avoided a depression. But so far most growth rates are moving in the wrong direction. Why would any sane person want this job?