With the real economy resurgent, the World Bank and IMF could be reformed to manage capital flows and make trade deals about trade again. But the mood in Washington makes this unlikely.
Supply Chain
Posted inEconomic Policy
The Trade Fight That Could Doom Biden’s Industrial Policy
A long-awaited bipartisan bill on domestic manufacturing could run aground because of House-Senate differences over its trade chapter—reflecting intense corporate lobbying.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Supply Chains Are Easing. Or They’re Not.
Our system is so unstable that we could be seeing endless waves of supply dysfunction, with dangerous impacts on the economy.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Summers Watch
Larry Summers is not only a self-promoter who is often wrong on his economics. He is disdainful of who suffers if his recommendations are taken seriously.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Rollups: A Chinese Corner in Chassis and Containers
Effectively all standard containers used in global shipping are made by Chinese state-owned enterprises. The dangers of that circumstance revealed themselves during the pandemic.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Tug Life
From Canada to Panama, tugboat workers are being squeezed as shipping companies earn record profits.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Supply Chain Fixes, Energy Transition Take Major Steps Forward
Nobody will tell you, but Congress came closer to re-regulating an economic sector while the president began the wartime mobilization of clean energy.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Interest Rate Hikes Aren’t a Solution for Supply Shocks
Policymakers are employing the wrong tools for the current circumstances.
Posted inEconomic Policy
The Gulf States’ Tech Play
Saudi Arabia and the UAE use prodigious investments in technology firms as a political weapon.
Posted inTAP
COVID and the China Bottleneck
Today on TAP: Beijing’s extreme lockdowns are one more reason to unwind U.S. reliance on Chinese supplies.
