After months of market turmoil, Greece’s government succumbed to reality and asked for a $60 billion bailout from its Eurozone compatriots and the International Monetary Fund. The rescue, once it is finalized, will likely calm markets for a while, since it will at the very least ensure Greece won’t default on its massive pile of …

We’re all by now well aware of the dangers of global imbalances, those massive surpluses and deficits – most notably in China and the U.S. — that underpinned the Great Recession. Economists agree that the world economy will not return to a stable, healthy growth path until those giant imbalances are reduced. That means Americans …

There’s a growing consensus among economists that the global economic recovery is looking better and better. Those fears of a “double-dip” recession, in which the world takes a second tumble into a downturn, are fading. Barclays Capital recently upgraded its 2010 GDP growth forecast for the U.S. to 3.8% from 3.5%, and had this to …

Whenever the BRICs have a powwow, as they did during their second summit this week in Brasilia, I can’t help thinking about the future of the global economy. After all, the BRICs – that’s Goldman Sachs-speak for the four great emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China – in many ways represent that future. There’s …

China’s gross domestic product grew a spectacular 11.9% in the first quarter of 2010, compared to the same period a year before. Qu Hongbin, an economist with HSBC, figures that China’s GDP is expanding at an annualized rate of nearly 11%.

That’s darn fast. Perhaps too fast. Reports from economists about the Q1 figures featured …

The ongoing fiscal meltdown in Greece has become something like watching a really bad action flick. The required damsel-in-distress (in this case named Greece), yelping and screaming from scene to scene, barely survives repetitive attempts to do her in by assorted bad guys (in this case called speculators), until some hunk with a lot of …

China posted a trade deficit – no, that’s not a typo, I did mean deficit – in March, of $7.2 billion. That’s the first monthly deficit since 2004. It couldn’t come at a more auspicious time, for China that is. Beijing is in the middle of a tug-of-war with Washington over the value of its currency, and the deficit takes a bit of …

Everyone’s gotten themselves all hot and bothered at the prospect that China’s leadership may actually loosen up policy on their currency, the yuan, and allow it to appreciate against the U.S. dollar. Optimism was sparked by U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s unexpected pit stop in Beijing for a meeting with China’s vice

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I had the honor last week to interview Japan’s new Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, in Tokyo. My full story on Hatoyama appears in the April 19th magazine, and you can also read the full text here. But I thought I’d add some more details from the interview on Curious Capitalist.

I only had 40 minutes with Hatoyama so it’s hard to …

My post today is about a country that doesn’t usually get much attention in debates about global economic issues – Malaysia. But don’t be too quick to click to the next webpage. What’s going on these days in that small, tropical nation is raising interesting questions about the relationship between social justice and economic …

Many people reading this post probably know little about the Chinese carmaker Geely. Perhaps you’ve never heard of the company at all. That’s not surprising, since it has almost zero presence in major car markets (outside of China). But that changed instantly on Sunday when Geely finalized its purchase of Volvo from Ford for $1.8 …

I’m writing this post from Seoul, South Korea, a city that holds very special meaning for me. Seoul was my first full-time overseas assignment as a foreign correspondent (for The Wall Street Journal), and I spent almost five years here, intensely immersed in the history, economy and culture of this fascinating nation. I used to joke I …