Category Archives: Economy

China’s lack of growth drivers is a bigger risk than inflation: Michael Pettis

Posted on January 10, 2011 by Venky

(This interview with Michael Pettis, professor at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management, a specialist in Chinese financial markets, was published in DNA edition dated January 10, 2011.) China’s headline inflation numbers have had global financial markets bracing for tightening measures … Continue reading →

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‘Zombie ideas that caused the near-meltdown of financial markets are still driving policy’

Posted on January 3, 2011 by Venky

(This interview, with John Quiggin, professor of economics at the University of Queensland in St Lucia and author of Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk Among Us, was published in DNA edition dated January 3, 2011.) The arresting cover … Continue reading →

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Stephen Roach takes the ‘baseball bat’ to Paul Krugman

Posted on December 10, 2010 by Venky

(This article was published in DNA edition dated December 10, 2010.) Venky Vembu The intellectual war of words between economists Stephen Roach and Paul Krugman is the stuff of legends. They disagree – vehemently – on the fundamentals underlying the … Continue reading →

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Think Asia is out of the woods? Think again

Posted on December 10, 2010 by Venky

(This article was published in DNA edition dated December 10, 2010.) Venky Vembu Ever since Stephen Roach, arguably one of the world’s most influential economists, moved back to the US in July after “three fantastic years” in Hong Kong as … Continue reading →

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Flash News: ‘No-panty’ Yana shows India is booming

Posted on December 6, 2010 by Venky

Venky Vembu In the Vanities No one wears panities —- Ogden Nash, Theatrical Reflection   In the early 1990s, when the Indian economy was opening up to the world, foreign consumer brands, in the first flush of excitement, came tripping … Continue reading →

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‘China can’t win a trade war; it will be massacred’

Posted on November 29, 2010 by Venky

(This interview with economist and fund manager Richard Duncan, on the prospects of a trade war, and its implications, was published in DNA edition dated November 29, 2010.) Venky Vembu In his first book, The Dollar Crisis, published in 2005, … Continue reading →

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Behind China’s ‘bamboo curtain’ is an amoebic God

Posted on November 28, 2010 by Venky

(This review of two books on China was published in DNA edition dated November 28, 2010.) Venky Vembu Prince Charles, whose own personality is far from sparkling, once described Chinese leaders as “appalling old waxworks”. The validity of that judgment … Continue reading →

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How China ‘punishes’ countries that receive the Dalai Lama

Posted on November 27, 2010 by Venky

(This interview, with a research scholar who identified a ‘Dalai Lama effect’ on international trade with China, was published in DNA edition dated November 27, 2010.) When jailed Chinese political dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, … Continue reading →

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China’s ‘hot money’ turned on by local Viagra

Posted on November 25, 2010 by Venky

(This article, about a rush of hot money in China into non-traditional investments, including a traditional Chinese medicine that serves as a sexual aphrodisiac, was published in DNA edition dated November 25, 2010.) Venky Vembu China’s ‘hot money’ speculators, bearing … Continue reading →

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Petticoat politics and the drawstrings of the 2G scam

Posted on November 24, 2010 by Venky

(This column, discussing privacy issues arising from a recent big-money corruption scandal in India, was published in DNA edition dated November 24, 2010.) Venky Vembu Tamil Nadu’s former chief minister and leader of the Dravidian movement C.N. Annadurai once invoked … Continue reading →

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