On Saturday, the U.S. government, European Commission, and five major nations issued a statement on financial sanctions against Russia which targets some of the largest Russian banks and drastically reduces the ability of the Russian central bank to support the value of the ruble currency by restricting their access to their reserves held outside Russia.…
Capital flow management is coming back into vogue among economists, government officials in other countries and in international institutions. As international capital flows continue to grow to tens or even hundreds of trillions of dollars per year, washing around unpredictably between countries and financial institutions, officials are increasingly looking at ways to put some sort…
A new CPA study, using widely accepted methodology and IMF data, shows that for the world’s major economies to achieve fair currency values and eliminate global imbalances, large adjustments in major currencies would be required. The dollar would need to fall by 16.6%, while the Chinese yuan would need to rise against the dollar by…
Last year, America’s largest chipmaker, Intel, agreed to sell its memory chip business to South Korean memory chipmaker SK Hynix for $9 billion, part of the routine musical chairs of tech companies repositioning their assets. But in the past month, disturbing reports have emerged that China may be imposing forced technology transfer on these companies…
Summary: This is the first ever estimate of substantial missing import data due to the U.S de minimis program. The “de minimis” provision of U.S. customs law allows imports valued at less than $800 to enter the U.S. duty-free. The impact of de minimis on the U.S. economy is large and getting larger. We…
With consumer price inflation (CPI) running at 6.8% as of November 2021, many importers are trying to use inflation as an excuse for repealing the tariffs enacted by former President Donald Trump and continued by President Joe Biden. This is special interest pleading and bad economics. A close look at the state of the U.S.…
Global capital flows are the driving force behind the rise of the dollar, which rose 3.9% in 2021. In the last ten years, the dollar is up 25.5%[1]. The US attracts capital for many reasons, including tax avoidance, speculative trading, and a relatively small amount of genuine investment. The deregulation of financial markets in the…
A new paper by the “China Shock” economists adds to the growing mountain of literature documenting the costs of free trade events to the U.S. economy over the past half century. Their new paper, On the Persistence of the China Shock, shows that increased unemployment, protracted withdrawal from the labor force, and other social ills…
The United States bike industry is in the midst of an unprecedented boom, triggered by the COVID pandemic. Bike sales rose sharply in the spring of 2020, as gyms, yoga studios and other exercise centers shut down and Americans sought outdoor activities like biking, a relatively safe form of exercise. In 2021, the sales surge…
In June, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai gave a speech in which she outlined her vision of worker-centered trade, a popular phrase among Biden administration officials. According to Tai: “Build Back Better starts by growing the economy from the bottom up and the middle out and putting workers at the center of our economic plans…In…
