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With oil prices tumbling, some experts believe that this is the perfect time for China to reform its oil pricing mechanism, because a higher tax would currently inflict relatively little hardship on consumers. The government should use this rare opportunity to create a pricing system that better reflects the full economic and environmental costs of fuel production and consumption.
Europe-wide discussions on the emerging Gulf economies, domestic political reform, sovereign wealth funds and the potential of Gulf investment to contribute to a solution for the financial crisis.
The genius of all great systems is their ability to reinvent themselves, to adapt to changing environments. That's the reason why those whose response to the current crisis is to announce the end of capitalism are so misguided. Capitalism will survive. But it will not, and should not, survive unchanged. We are going to enter an era of resurgent regulation at the national level and global level.
The United States has long relied on a financial system that intertwines its economy with China and Japan, allowing us to run huge trade and budget deficits. Now, as this ad-hoc system may be leading the world toward a global depression, most policymakers agree that the U.S. should reduce its trade deficit with Asia, while Asian countries should abandon their strategy of export-led growth.
Unless Beijing can get its economy going again, the government is likely to face their first sustained wave of protests in decades. Thus far, China has kept labor protests separate from one another, preventing them from developing a common theme or a common leader. But if China's downturn turns into an outright recession, the country could face its first serious threat to the regime.
A close examination of China's economic reform policies in the 1980s and 1990s reveals differences that shed light on motivations for its $586 billion stimulus plan.
As emerging-market powers have grown economically, their geopolitical rise is occurring equally quickly. The G20 summit highlights a new ‘new world order,’ in which emerging powers have a stronger voice in international institutions. Despite their sometimes differing agendas, countries like China, India, Russia, and Brazil are learning to work together to earn a voice in this new economic order.
Neither economic nor political reform has produced dramatic change in Arab countries in the last five years, and yet there is continued dynamism and calls for change from within Arab societies.Frustration with formal politics is leading to the creation of less organized protest activities disconnected from any party or movement.
Despite the growing global skepticism of Western-style democracy, citizens across Asia decisively reject authoritarian alternatives such as strong-man rule or military rule.
The G20 meeting scheduled for November 15 will begin to restructure the global economic order, presenting new challenges to the leaders of wealthy nations. The U.S. must support new global financial institutions and regulatory systems, and President-elect Obama will need to convince Americans that stronger multilateral mechanisms will actually help preserve our sovereignty and influence.
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