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Misunderstanding North Korea’s Celebrity Culture
For nearly a year I have been carrying around with me an essay by David Zeglen titled “It’s the Thought That Counts: North Korea’s...
Wedgetail · Jul 29, 2016China’s SOE Reform—The Wrong Path
A key component of China’s SOE reform strategy—mergers of the largest firms in the same industry—seems very unlikely to improve th...
Wedgetail · Jul 28, 2016The Divergent Postcommunist Paths to Democracy and Economic Freedom
This paper presents evidence from 29 postcommunist countries that the economic transition has been more successful than the politi...
Wedgetail · Jul 28, 2016Slave to the Blog: The Will Rogers Edition
The American humorist famously observed, “If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.” Some folks internalize this advice, and, ...
Wedgetail · Jul 27, 2016US Exit From WTO Would Unravel Global Trade
In his latest attack on US trade policy, Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump has threatened to exit the 163-country ...
Wedgetail · Jul 26, 2016The US Filed a WTO Dispute to Save Jobs—by Increasing Imports from China: Here’s Why
In the latest salvo against free trade, Donald Trump argued that the World Trade Organization is a disaster and fails to protect U...
Wedgetail · Jul 26, 2016Summer Reading: Diamond, Plattner and Walker, Authoritarianism Goes Global
Last year, I wrote about the problem of “democracy promotion in reverse” and spotlighted a website managed by the International Fo...
Wedgetail · Jul 26, 2016Economic and Political Freedoms Diverge in Eastern Europe
Political analysts often assume that economic and political freedoms go together. Increase property rights and the opportunities f...
Wedgetail · Jul 25, 2016The Next European Financial Capital: London
The race to succeed London as the next European financial capital is on. “We know that groups based in the City are planning to le...
Wedgetail · Jul 25, 2016The North Korean Economy Contracted Last Year. Maybe.
The Bank of Korea has released its annual North Korean GDP estimates, and the BOK has concluded that the North Korean economy cont...
Wedgetail · Jul 25, 2016China Chart: Tracking China’s Debt
Chinese banks were at it again in June with another steep increase in the amount of lending. New renminbi loans increased by $200 ...
Wedgetail · Jul 22, 2016Local Content Requirements: Backdoor Protectionism Spreading Under the Radar
Local content requirements (LCRs), or more broadly “localization rules,” have become a popular protectionist tool to favor domesti...
Wedgetail · Jul 22, 2016Trans-Pacific Partnership: An Assessment
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) between 12 Pacific Rim countries has generated the most intensive political debate about the r...
Wedgetail · Jul 21, 2016Release of Implications of the Trans-Pacific Partnership for the World Trading System
The Peterson Institute for International Economics released the Policy Brief Implications of the Trans-Pacific Partnership for the...
Wedgetail · Jul 14, 2016A Slow Negotiation Might Help Achieve a Better Brexit Solution
What happens now to the relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union, after the Brexit referendum? It has been d...
Wedgetail · Jul 05, 2016State of Play in the Chinese Steel Industry
Steel overcapacity is a global problem and China, the world’s largest steel-producing country, is at the center of the debate over...
Wedgetail · Jul 05, 2016Once Again, Sanctions Enforcement
In an earlier post, I talked about the qualitative evidence that North Korea is starting to experience distress, and noted that th...
Wedgetail · Jul 05, 2016Brexit: What a Difference a Week Makes
Britain’s decision to part ways with the European Union in a referendum last week was a classic example of what former US Defense ...
Wedgetail · Jul 01, 2016US and Global Trade: Economic Fact and Political Fiction
Proponents of more open trade may have oversold its benefits during the 1990s heyday of commercial liberalization. Now they are re...
Wedgetail · Jul 01, 2016Brexit Is a Disastrous Experiment in Deglobalization
Brexit is an experiment in deglobalization. As the pound tanks and British politics implode, investment will dry up and the entire...
Wedgetail · Jul 01, 2016